HaloHazard
by Hyperwryter88
Summary: John-117, Cortana, Thel Vadam, UNSC marines, Elites and Brutes crash land on 20th century Earth in Raccoon City, battle B.O.W.s and interact with survivors while figuring out how to return to the 26th century. Halo and Resident Evil xover. M for language and violence. The next chapter is finally complete and is now available for reading! The story is still alive and kicking.
1. Wake up, John!

**Ok, to all readers both old and new, this is a retyped version of HaloHazard. My reason for doing this is because some things I posted in the original chapters didn't feel right to me so I have decided to correct them.**

**Btw, just asking. Did the events of RE3 take place before or after Leon and Claire faced the infestation? I always get that confused and I want to make sure the RE storyline's in the right order.**

**Again, the armor suits will have the abilities seen in Halo Reach, although the Arbiter will have the camo and John won't(I just perfer it that way). Thel's weapons have unlimited ammo (except for the plasma bombs) while the Chief's has his limited and must conserve it for anything really important and they will sometimes battle their foes with combat moves. I was inspired to do that from a dream I had in mid-2010.**

**I will also say this once since I hate repeating it: I don't own anything Halo or Resident Evil related, just my computer. Remember that for all chapters.**

**The stroy's intro was borrowed from the Halo 4 trailer. Speaking of which, anyone know what the MC will be facing next year in Halo 4?**

* * *

"Chief! Arbiter!" an alarmed female voice said aloud. It belonged to the artificial intelligence construct named Cortana. Her cries for her two companions meant that something has happened and she was in desperate need for them to emerge from their cryo pods in which they slept in.

"Wake up, you two! Please, I need you!" she begged again.

At last, the cryotube chamber doors slowly opened and out stepped their inhabitants.

One was a man donned in a green armor suit, he was a UNSC Spartan 2 commando. His name is John, he went by many names and titles like Master Chief or Chief for short, Spartan-117, Demon and Reclaimer.

The other was an alien being who, along with his entire race, is a former commander/enemy-turned ally. The name of this one was Thel 'Vadam, but everyone addressed him as "the Arbiter" or just "Arbiter", which was also his rank in his people's military system. His species was called "Sangheili" in his native language, but the humans, whom he and his kind were once at war with, often called them "Elites". It was easy for them to remember. His people were part of an extraterrestrial, religious empire called "Covenant".

Both were feeling groggy and a bit disoriented after their sudden release from their prolonged hypersleep. The effects were a few seconds short and they regained their senses.

"Cortana, are you alright?" John asked when he suddenly remembered and looked at the small table where he last saw her.

Thel 'Vadam glanced around and noticed that the air around them was breathable again as he last remembered being trapped in outer space and that the piece of the human ship which they both used to escape from the doomed, Halo Installation 04 copy, "FORWARD UNTO DAWN", was no longer in the deep recesses of space. He wanted to ask what happened during their time in cryostasis when a blue light suddenly flickered and a small, blue woman appeared on the desk where the Chief stood waiting.

"I'm alright. Thank goodness you two heard me calling. I thought you'de never respond." she said happily. "What about you, two?"

He nodded in approval.

"As am I." the alien said.

John then realized what his partner had.

"What happened?" he asked her.

"I think we crash-landed on a planet during our space drift. We'd better check it out." she answered.

The two of them looked around for any weapons on board the ship . . . or what was left of it anyway.

John found the UNSC weapons he brought with him from their escape. They were a DMR battle rifle, M60 magnum, a machete which he didn't remember bringing at all, and the UNSC signature and his favorite, the MA5B assault rifle. He also learned that all of his firearms came with limited ammunition and had to be conserved until he could locate more. He had about six magazines for each.

As for Thel, besides the energy sword he used to slay the Prophet of Truth, he found some Covenant weapons laying next to a discarded Ranger battle suit complete with a jetpack. They consisted of a plasma rifle, Covenant carbine, and other energy sword. There were also several human and Covenant grenades near the weapons.

The duo began equipping themselves.

"When we leave this ship, there'd better not be anymore Brutes or Loyalists around. I'm getting sick and tired of them." Cortana complained.

"I share what you feel of them." Thel agreed as he too could not stand who he once worked with during the war.

He swapped his current armor for the Ranger uniform and tested all of its technology such as cloaking, energy shields, armor lock, drop shield, and the helmet's HUD which included radar, night vision, language translator, and zooming. Everything was in working order.

Like the Covenant Separatist, John also tested everything on his armor and helmet HUD for malfunctions and the results showed no damage. He placed Cortana's chip in his helmet and was ready for action.

They stepped out from the ship remains and aimed their rifles everywhere for any menacing foes, but found none and lowered them. But what they saw gave them puzzled looks behind their helmets.

They were in a city, but it didn't look like any city they've ever ventured to before. It looked . . .retro.

Everything here was as if it were Earth in the 20th or 21st century. What made it even odder was that it was empty like some kind of ghost town.

All over, there were wrecked vehicles, buildings and streets littered with fire, discarded paper, junk, and dried blood. Save for some dead bodies and the Spartan, Elite, and the A.I., there was no sign of life around.

Had the Covenant Loyalists already come and clash with the town's population or was there some sort of civil disturbance like a huge riot?

The lone war veterans walked along the city streets. Not a single person was present.

"Where are we and where is everybody? Has there been another battle here?" Thel wondered.

Cortana said to them, "I'm not sure. I will go on lockdown for a moment to study our location."

Both agreed and Cortana did as she said and they were left to explore the seemingly empty city.

After ten minutes or less, Cortana's light flickered.

"Guys. I managed to learn about our situation, but you're not going to like it." she said with a slight warning.

But before she could inform them of her newfound knowledge, a newspaper drifted along the street they stood on and wrapped itself around the Master Chief's ankle. He scooped it up and began reading it.

Thanks to his helmet's translator, Thel 'Vadam was able to read what the paper said.

This is what it read:

**THE DEAD WALK!**

**It is being called "The most unimaginable thing to ever happen in the history of mankind!" What was meant for fictitous purposes has now become reality!**

**The living dead, also known as zombies, have invaded Raccoon City! They are showing the exact symptoms of the monsters portrayed in films, books, and video games: slow walking, ignorance of any pain, ghoulish groaning, peeling and decaying skin, ghostly-white eyes, and the worst one of all, an endless hunger for human flesh!**

**Just like in fiction, if a person is bitten or scratched by these deadly creatures, the victim will eventually, if not fully consumed by the attackers, becomes one of them!**

**Some locals are seeing this as a sign of the infamous, biblical apocalypse. Across the city, many religious residents are stating that the end has finally arrived and the entire world will face punishment for its sins. Others believe that it it some kind of prank and the ghoulish figures are simply escaped convicts and mass murderers doing this for media attention and publicity.**

**This is what the town's S.T.A.R.S. members were trying to tell everyone the whole time since that mission in the Arklay Mountains and nobody refused to believe their story.**

**The R.P.D. had this to say . . .**

The article ended right there since the rest of the page was missing.

Cortana, John, and Thel 'Vadam were in disbelief from what they read.

But Cortana couldn't deny it. She proceeded to tell them.

"That paper you read, what it says is true. she admitted.

"What do you mean?" Thel questioned. He was clueless of their current situation as he knew very little of human history, he was about to get a quick, history lesson.

"I mean that the 'abandoned' city we're in," she used air quotes for that word, "is an Earth town called Raccoon City. According to my data, the month and day is September 29th, and the year is 1998. This was the time when a manmade substance called 'T-Virus' was released by mistake and caused a massive outbreak that turned all humans and animals here into dangerous creatures called 'zombies' and we are smack-dab in the middle of it all right now!"

John then remembered hearing some stories about this infamous tragedy back in his youth. But back then, he was too swamped with his military training to listen to most of it.

It sounded impossible, he even looked at a billboard that said "Welcome To Raccoon City! One of the most wonderful towns in the Midwest!", but he asked anyway.

"Cortana, are you telling us that this is Earth, but we have somehow time traveled back to the past?"

"Correct. she said. "See the date on the paper for yourself."

John did and it was just as she said: September the 29th, 1998.

"How did this happen?" Thel asked.

Cortana's answer to those questions were halted when both of their HUD radars began bleeping and showed several red dots.

A sickening groan was heard and the war heroes quickly turned around and spotted Raccoon City's population: zombies.

About a dozen of them were limping toward Thel and John, their mouths agape and ready for eating.

The same corpses they saw earlier suddenly sprang to life and copied the others.

"Are these the zombies you described? They look like Flood to me." said the Elite. to him, they really did remind him of the dangerous Flood.

"Indeed." she answered. "But they're not Flood, they are humans who have been infected by that T-Virus I mentioned. One bite or scratch from them spells doom for their victims. But thanks to your armor suits and energy shields, that should be impossible, plus they're slow and weak. Guys, you must kill them before they can spread any further.

For a moment, both the Spartan and Sangheili were lost in thought. To John, it had been years since he last fought with a human foe(besides Flood-infected marines and such). He remembered at age 8, he once fought some UNSC Marines during a training mission back on one of Reach's Highland Mountains, they weren't wearing marine uniforms but that didn't fool him, and when he was 14, he fought with four ODST's in a boxing ring and killed with two members while leaving the rest with severe injuries. Turned out it was all staged as part of another Spartan training test.

As for Thel 'Vadam, he had just redeemed himself with humanity and renounced his killing ways toward them. Infected or not, he wasn't completely sure if he could go through with it again. If these new targets were as threatening as Cortana and that newspaper story indicated, then he felt he had no choice but to do battle with them. To help himself in going through with it, he would have to imagine the undead as Flood as he had no problem dealing with them during the Human-Covenant War, even if some were infected Sangheilis.

Both of them leapt into a confrontation with the horde.

John put his gun away to conserve his ammo and fatally punched out the first zombie he saw. A female zombie grabbed the Spartan by his left arm and bit down, but his armor and shields chipped the creature's teeth and John simply elbowed it hard in its right temple and it fell dead.

Thel mentally gathered himself and gripped two zombie's heads in each hand and strongly bashed their faces toward each other, killing them. Next, he armed himself with his energy swords and sliced away at the rest.

The slaughter continued until only the Elite warrior and the Spartan commando remained standing.

A downed zombie crawled toward them hungrily, but met its end when John lifted the creature by the neck and tossed it away like a bag of trash. The zombie landed on a sidewalk headfirst and broke its neck.

Their radars indicated that the coast was now clear of infected. But that was only the beginning.

Thel 'Vadam was feeling a bit remorseful from what he just did, he got over it when he remembered that the foes were no longer humans.

As the duo from the future began to venture further into Raccoon City, the sound of a vehicle crash happened not too far from their position, it was soon followed by a second crash that led to a great explosion that lit up the night sky.

John and Thel went to investigate. To play it safe, both activated their jetpacks and hovered on top of the buildings, mostly the tall ones.

* * *

**Satisfied? Yes, the monsters(save for William Birkin) are T-Virus carriers this time. I don't know why I called them G-Virus carriers, I got the virus mixed up from a mistake someone from the Resident Evil wikia site made, so go ahead, brag away if you want.**

**To Kaijudospartan(how'd you come up with that name? Really, I'm curious.) thanks for the reminder, I forgot the ship they escaped on was FORWARD UNTO DAWN. **

**To Psykotic Addiction: I forgot about that part too. I re-learning Halo stuff after spending most of my gametime playing Call Of Duty and Mortal Kombat 2011.**

**To all readers, tell everyone you know who are new to this story to avoid reading the older chapters. Those will be retold. **


	2. Welcome To Raccoon City

**Is the wait for Halo 4 killing any of you? It is with me. Send errors to my private message box please.**

* * *

The Master Chief and the Arbiter had their weapons ready. Both were now on top of an apartment building.

Another zombie saw them and tried to interfere, but it was quickly brought down by the alien via a swipe to the leg and was kicked off the roof of said building and crashed below on the street with a splat.

When the two got closer, they began to hear voices, they were coming from the crash site and they sounded human.

When they approached their destination, all they saw was an enormous field of fire crackling all over the road. But when they focused their helmet's zooming modes, they noticed two people, a man and a woman, standing on opposite sides of the wreckage, both of them blocked off by the flame wall.

The man's uniform described him as an authority figure, a police officer. His police clothing was blue with "R.P.D." written across his chest and back. There was a knife sheath on his left shoulder, he also wore black shoes and had blond hair. In his left hand was a pistol.

Judging from her clothing, the woman looked like an outlaw biker-type. She wore a pink motorcycle jacket with stitched angel design on the back and words that read "Made In Heaven", a black short-sleeved shirt underneath, brown boots that almost reached up to her knees, fingerless leather gloves and her hair was tied into a ponytail. On the right side of her chest was another knife sheath, just like the cop had and a handgun in her hand.

"Claire!" said the officer.

"Leon!" said the biker.

"Head for the police station, I'll meet you there!" said him.

"Okay!" said her.

Then they turned and went their separate ways, doing their best to avoid the undead.

Crouched above the building, John and Thel began thinking. Having little knowledge of the outbreak, John knew that it was still his duty to ensure the safety of all innocent people who needed help, no matter where he was or, as of now, what time period he was in.

Now he wished he had listened to those old stories more often before. What troubled him was that, except for some of the Spartan trainees from his younger years, nobody had ever mentioned this incident, not once. Why was it kept in the dark all that time?

All of this was brand new for Thel 'Vadam. Unggoys(Grunts), Jiralhanaes(Brutes), Mgalekgolos(Hunters), Kig-Yars(Jackals), Yanme'es(Drones), the San 'Shyuum(Prophets), Huragoks(Engineers) and Flood were one thing, now it was virus zombies. He had never heard of or seen these new foes before, but, like the Chief, he decided to partake in combating this infestation anyway. Besides, now that he was waltzing around in Earth's past, how was he going to return to his homeworld of Sangheilios? Without the unknown source responsible for bringing them here, he was just as trapped here as the one he and his people formally knew as "the Demon".

At least his old enemies, the Brutes, weren't here otherwise they probably would have not only obliterated the humans of this era, but they would maybe find and collect the virus responsible for the mayhem in this city and use it to their advantage and against his race. He couldn't imagine what an viral infected Sangheili's appearance would have been like. Flood was different, they were parasitic organisms. Little did he know that eventually, something similar to the Flood would arise in a few Earth years from now.

They decided to split up and follow them, John and Cortana would follow the cop and Thel would go after the biker. At least now they got their names, the policeman was named Leon and the girl was named Claire. Before departing, they adjusted their helmet radios so they can communicate when they had to.

The war heroes descended down close to the wreckage. The other survivors had already disappeared further into the city and were out of view.

The infected on both sides forgot about Leon and Claire and set their sights on the futuristic warriors.

Thel tightly gripped his energy swords and hacked away.

The hot plasma blades melted through and killed a police zombie the moment they made contact with its dead, rotting flesh.

John once again put away his handgun, and clutched a zombie in a headlock and reversed its head in a lethal 180 degree twist. He knocked another one over with a mighty kick to the chest, dragged it by its feet to the flame pit of the crash site and chucked the zombie in where it became engulfed in flames and died.

Thel was too busy killing that he failed to notice two zombies lunge at him. One of them attached to him piggyback-style. He shoved them off and plunged his left sword into the face of one of them and he placed his opposite sword into a wide crack on the road handle first. He lifted the creature up until its upper body was high above and executed what looked like a powerbomb move and and impaled it right onto the blade.

The dead zombie slid off the weapon blades like butter when the alien removed it from the ground. More undead surrounded him and they were all about to meet their fate.

* * *

**Where the Master Chief and Cortana started out . . .**

* * *

During the struggle, Cortana and John heard the sound of breaking glass followed by a gunshot and then a bloodcurling scream and they quickly rushed to it. It sounded like it came from an alleyway.

John turned a corner and found a building with a barely-functioning, electronic sign that read "Kendo Gun Shop". When he got closer, he saw a shattered window and beyond it were a gang of four zombies consuming a dead body.

Upon hearing the Spartan's arrival on the scene, the zombies saw him and rose to their feet with their arms and hands hanging out.

John calmly removed his machete blade and swung away. Two carriers were beheaded, one was split-sliced in two from the groin all the way up to the head. The last one was sweep kicked to the floor and John raised his foot and smashed its face and head wide open like a coconut.

He walked up to the body for inspection and saw plenty of bite marks covering most of the corpse. The right side of his neck was missing some flesh and his jugular veins had been severed very badly and spilling blood all over. A name tag was visible on his necklace tag, it read "My name is Robert Kendo. How may I help you?"

The name was unfamiliar with either of the two.

"Master Chief, this man is infected and will soon undergo zombification unless he is decapitated immediately." said Cortana.

He understood and he raised his machete up and brought the blade down and the head rolled away from the body.

John left through the shop's back door and it led him into a cramped alleyway. Trash bags, containers, and empty and torn boxes littered the area. Graffiti writings and symbols were pasted all over the brick walls.

The Spartan slowly made his way through, his armored feet clanking the ground from every step he took.

He turned a corner and came across an abandoned basketball court where more graffiti was present and an ambulance that blocked the pathway in front of him.

Beyond the court's entrance were filthy benches, round and flattened basketballs, a couple of zombies and a gate exit.

He went to the gate door, eliminating the leftover zombies along the way.

Another alley came into view with an upward stairway and still no sign of the officer. The Spartan walked up the stairs and found a walkway. To get a better view and to save him some trouble, he used his jetpack to reach the top of another building.

An almost outstanding view of Raccoon City was captured right before their eyes. Too bad it was more like hell than amazing.

"Over there." said Cortana. The Chief turned to the direction his A.I. friend suggested and saw a giant, blue building with a blue flag with the same initials as Leon's uniform and an American flag, both hanging from twin pillars. It was the city's police station, the place the two people from before instructed each other to head for.

A gunshot was heard and the super soldier zoomed in and witnessed Leon shoot and kill another zombie near the station's bridge. This one was wearing what appeared to be a pilot's uniform. He zoomed in further and saw a name tag with "Brad Vickers" written on it.

Neither of them had a clue who Brad Vickers was. Snapping out of thought, John pressed on and hovered from rooftop to rooftop until he finally reached the station undetected.

The Spartan hovered to the top of the building to keep from being spotted by Leon as he opened its doors and stepped inside. Calculating the right angle, he hurled himself through the air and smashed right through one of the windows feet first.

John and Cortana were now inside the darkened halls of the Raccoon City Police Department. Now all that was needed to do was to find the cop and wait for the Arbiter and his target to arrive.

* * *

**Where Thel 'Vadam was starting out . . .**

* * *

After slaughtering every zombie on the street, Thel inspected himself for any damage, but he found nothing and continued on with his quest. He heard a scream and a gunshot on the other side of the pit. He decided to let the Chief handle it.

Just to play it safe, he activated his suit's camouflage mode. The human wouldn't be able to see him, but the undead would only he was about to learn that.

He spotted more zombies and hoped his stealth camo would do its job and hide him from their view. It didn't and they came in hot and he killed them.

The alien found an area filled with uninhabited police cars and more undead. Ignoring them, he hopped to the top of a small hut.

The sound of flying machinery perked his ears and he looked up and discovered a helicopter flying above and shining its bright, white light below.

The flying vehicle reminded him of those UNSC Hornet the humans operated during the final days of the Human-Covenant War. He hadn't ridden one since that time he and John helped both of their race's armies in destroying the twin Scarabs that guarded the Prophet of Truth from all who wanted to enter his temple and assassinate him.

The chopper's pilot spoke from an intercom. "I can't set her down! I'll throw you a rope ladder, grab onto it!"

Thel wondered if he was talking to the girl he was supposed to follow.

Machine gun fire pierced the air and from the looks of things, the helicopter and its operator were hit and were now descending to the ground fast until it crashed and exploded.

The Sangheili quickly ran to the crash site, killing any zombies that got in his way. He hoped the girl still lived.

When he arrived, he discovered the chopper's remains and the charred body of the pilot dangling from the doorside, but whomever he was trying to aid was nowhere to be found. Did he or she escape or die?

A water pipe was discovered inches from the wreckage. Thel 'Vadam looked closer with his helmet's zooming and frowned when he learned it required a valve handle to work. He did, however, find that the pipe led all the way to a giant water container on top of a building next to where the helicopter crashed.

Wasting no time, Thel hovered to the container and used his right energy sword to slice its side open in one swing. Soon, water burst out like blood from an open wound and doused the fire within seconds.

After the flames died out, Thel 'Vadam searched the wreckage for the female, but found only the bodies of two zombies and another human, a police officer similar to the one the Master Chief was pursuing. This human had to be the one the pilot was talking to. He then figured that the zombies had ambushed this human and, in an uncontrollable panic, he gunned down the pilot by accident, causing the crash to happen.

The girl still lived.

A silver door caught his attention and he opened it and stepped inside. A hallway stretched out with a right turn.

The Elite followed it and saw another dead human on the floor in front of his feet and on the body and hall's window sills to his left were black crows. All of them stopped what they did and stared at him despite being invisible.

Their beaks were stained with blood and pieces of human skin dangled and their eyes were red, telling Thel that these birds carried that zombie virus. Now he knew humans were not the only ones open to this disaterous plague.

He broke eye contact with them and tried to proceed, but by doing so, the infected crows responded with hostile cawing and attacked him.

Their pecking and clawing were no match against the armored Sangheili, but the attack did interfere with his cloaking and caused it to deactivate, revealing his form to the birds.

Thel 'Vadam retaliated by wildly swinging his swords at them, killing most of them that way until only three remained. To finish off the final birds, he put his swords away and gripped tightly them in his hands. He twisted their heads with his thumbs and fatally crushed their small bodies till their bones cracked. The last crow was squeezed in both hands until it burst like a water balloon, leaving the alien's hands blanketed in blood, organs, broken bones and feathers.

_Disgusting_ he thought and wiped it all off. He lifted the body up and was about to dispose of it by tossing it out the window when the body suddenly reanimated into another zombie. But before it could try anything in its new form, Thel finished it off with a quick and silent neckbreaker and he got rid of the creature.

It was at that moment, he heard fast footsteps and they were drawing close to where he was at. It didn't sound like a zombie because they were too slow to move like that.

No time to escape out the windows, the Elite quickly cloaked himself and took refuge in a shadowy corner of the room and observed silently.

A green door opened and in came his target, the human girl called Claire. In her hands was a red, circular object, Thel guessed it was meant for the water system back at the crash site and she wanted to put out the flames. Too bad he already accomplished that feat before her.

When she passed through the hallway, she stopped and glanced around at the chaos in the hallway, completely unaware of being queitly watched by an alien being from the future.

"What happened to all those crows and where's that dead body?" she questioned herself.

Thel just stood his ground and remained silent.

Without another word, she shrugged it off and left to continue her task. The Covenant Separatist exited out the door she came from to clear out anymore zombies and making contact with Cortana and the Chief.

As he began to walk his way down a flight of metal stairs, his plans were interrupted by another helicopter appearing in the sky. It was different from the previous one and it didn't look like its purpose was to rescue any survivors this time.

Underneath it was a large, metal case filled with canisters. One of them hissed white smoke and dropped from the chopper and directly inside the same building he and her just came from.

Out of curiosity, Thel hovered to the hallway's rooftop and looked through the gaping hole that was now present. He spotted a drop pod inside and out of it emerged a huge, human-like being. It was bald and wore a green trenchcoat all over its body and boots on its almost-exposed feet.

It just stood there, not saying anything as if it had no idea what to do. Thel thought that all surviving humans were trying to escape this infested town. What was this hulking thing's objective?

A door beyond the hall opened and seconds later a small crashing noise filled inside, it was her again. This time, she carried a new weapon with her. It was a machine gun, the same gun he saw on the body from the crash.

The instant the giant heard her, it began walking toward her, its bare, gray fists pumped and ready for combat. Thel then learned why this thing was here: To kill the girl!

"Oh, crap!" she said when her eyes feasted on her new opponent.

With his cloaking still active, the Sangheili watched from above as the human girl and the giant humanoid faced each other.

"Whoever you are, you sure don't seem very friendly!" she said and raised her new gun and pulled the trigger. The bullets pierced the giant, but they failed to kill it or even slow it down.

It said nothing and continued toward her.

She sprayed more gunfire at it and yet it still refused to back down or die.

Claire aimed for its head and fired three shots. The rounds embedded themselves in the monster's forehead and made it stagger back a moment before dismissing the wound.

It then raised its fists and lunged at her with a mighty hammer swing.

Her machine gun clicked empty and she had no time to reload as she quickly evaded the creature's attack. Had the blow touched her, she would have either faced serious injury or even death.

Outside, Thel 'Vadam was trying to make a critical decision about his original plan. Should he assist the human girl or let her handle the situation herself?

The sight of her getting knocked off her feet and being too slow to retaliate or run away made the choice for him.

The hostile giant prepared to finish her off when suddenly, a small cylindrical machine flew through the air and landed next to her. It hummed and released a blue colored bubble field around her, separating her and the foe.

Not stopping at all, the creature resumed on killing its prey, but its strong blows were deflected from striking the mysterious bubble dome.

She was relieved and surprised to be saved by this miraculous shield. She wondered who or what was responsible for all this.

Another strike and again, no harm to the human came. Its victim was now untouchable. Although safe, there was a slight con to this: her ammo clips to her guns were seen outside of the dome except for the one already loaded in her handgun. She figured it was a bit weak against the new monster.

Then suddenly, something invisible kicked the back of its left leg, forcing the creature to kneel down, and attached something to its chest area and kicked it away hard on its back. The monster stumbled and bounced off the dome's surface and tried to remove the stuck object.

Claire got a good glimpse of the object. It was a glowing, blue ball that looked like it was on fire and it was emitting a beeping noise like a bomb or grenade about to explode.

Her guess came true when the blue ball erupted, the resulting explosion splashed some of the creature's blood everywhere except on her as the dome was still in use.

This surprise attack also left serious burns on parts of its coat and skin such as the chest, arms and hands when it fumbled over the device, shoulders, neck, face and head. The humanoid creature stumbled around the hall from the bomb's explosion. It bumped into the walls and corners a few times due to disorientation and pain. Seconds later, it collapsed onto the dome and then slid to the wooden floor unconcious.

The bubble shield deactivated itself and Claire slowly stood up, amazed yet stunned by what just happened. She quickly grabbed her lost ammo magazines, reloaded her machine gun and aimed it at the fallen thing. Then she heard heavy footsteps and noticed the floor's dust kick up on the ground from each step taken. Whatever it was, she could not see it.

Something beeped and just like that, a figure appeared right in front of her.

It looked like an astronaut due to its face helmet and armored suit. On its waist, chest, and back were strange items that resembled weaponry. This mysterious being had a green colored pistol-like object on the right side of its waist and on the other, two sword handles minus the blades. On its back was what she believed was a rifle, but it had glowing, sharp pink needles sticking out from it.

What made things more weird was that its covered hands and feet had no resemblance whatsoever to a human's. She thought it was some kind of birth defect.

Out of precaution, she trained her gun at him. She mentally scolded herself for threatening her savior.

"Who the hell are you?" she questioned bitterly.

The Sangheili held up his hand and spoke to her.

"No need for hostilities. I come in peace."

"Right . . . What's your name and how did you find me?" she demanded, still aiming at him.

"I am Thel 'Vadam. Like you, I too have some curiosity of this outbreak and I could be of assistance to you. " he answered.

The interrogation was cut short when the downed giant started moving slowly. It was about to awaken and try to kill her again, and maybe Thel too since he harmed it.

"No time for questions. We must flee this place now." Thel said.

Claire was at first hesitant to go with him, but seeing what he did to her would-be-killer what she herself couldn't do, what choice did she have? At a time like this, he was her greatest chance of survival until she found her friend again.

Both of them bolted out the door that lead to the metal stairs and down to the station's lower depths they went.

* * *

**Sorry I took so long. I just moved and my internet was crap in my new home at first. I got it repaired and it should be just as strong as the connection at my old place. **

**To whoever mentioned Xenomorphs(Aliens for anyone who doesn't know), the Lickers do remind me of them . . .but they have nothing to do with this. Makes you think who would own who in a fight.**

**To the person who mentioned the Insurrection thing, is that from the Halo comic books or the Halo anime? I'd read about it online, but I'm against spoiling good movies/stories/videogames for myself. I wanna find it and see it in person.**


	3. Shut Up And Get Behind Me    Partner

**Here's the new chapter 3. **

**By the way, when I said to have whoever you knew add me to their lists, that's because I thought I had to erase my entire Halohazard file to restart and I'd lose you all, but then I remembered my chapter rewriting technique and decided to remain.**

**Last time: Some of what you read may look the same, but the unwanted things are either removed or changed. **

**Enjoy.**

* * *

**Inside the R.P.D. station . . .**

* * *

John rose up and brushed off every piece of shattered glass from his armor and looked around.

He was in a hallway with a silver statue at the far end and a stairway that led downward to the room's lower floor occupied with more zombies. The ceiling's lights flickered on and off without end.

The zombies slagged around and immediately spotted the Master Chief. They moaned and walked to him with their raised, rotting hands.

John hopped off the balcony and onto the lower floor. The undead tried crowding around him, but they were no match against him as he commenced his armor lock mode, held it in place for a few seconds, and when he released the lock, the zombies were blasted away, most of them died from crashing into walls, doors and windows. Any who survived met their end at his hands, literally.

He attempted to open one of the room's doors, but it was locked and no key to it was found.

"Locked. Any ideas?" Cortana asked and indeed the Master Chief had one as a good soldier always did. He raised his boot, simply kicked the door down and walked right through.

"Of course." she said humorously.

Another hall passage, only this one had boarded up windows and a broken generator mounted on the wall on his right.

As he marched on, John saw the windows on the side boarded up with wooded planks nailed to them, there were some unused planks laying on the side.

A pair of double doors caught the Chief's eye and he fiddled with the doorknobs to see if they were locked. They weren't and he stepped inside.

The new place was covered in darkness, so he switched to his helmet's night vision mode.

It resembled a classroom/meeting room. Everywhere he looked there were messy desks, papers, books, beverage and coffee machines, and a chalkboard with illegible marks on it.

John walked across the empty room to an open one. Inside was more useless junk, a box full of handgun bullets lying on top of a desk and a fireplace filled with a flammable substance ready for lighting. He retrieved the ammo box and quickly dismissed lighting the fireplace since he had nothing to light it with.

After finding no survivors and nothing useful, he exited both rooms and back out into the hall with the boarded windows.

The search for Leon had to wait when he noticed another red dot on his HUD radar along with a creepy, exhaling sound. It sounded like no zombie.

"Heeeeehhhhhhhhh . . ." it said.

The random noise made the Chief enter a combat stance to face the upcoming threat.

A click-clacking sound from the ceiling came next and the soldier cocked his head up and found the cause. It was another viral creature, but this one was completely different from the zombies.

It's skin was absent and its entire muscular system was exposed. It had four limbs with huge claws on each one, its brain was showing on top of its head, no eyes on its face, a beating heart outside its chest, and above all, a long saliva-covered tongue hanged from its fang-filled mouth.

"What is that hideous . . . thing?" Cortana asked. She was disgusted by the monster's appearance. It was just as ugly as the Flood parasites. It heard her voice and released its grip on the ceiling and dropped down to the floor and hissed at the Spartan with great aggression.

John gave no answer of his own as he prepared himself for battle. He didn't need his weapons to kill this new enemy.

The abomination growled, charged at the Master Chief and latched on to him. He simply shoved it off. Next, it whipped its long tongue at him, but John caught it in his left hand and pulled hard.

This made the beast screech angrily and thrash about, trying to reclaim its appendage, but no luck as its target yanked on the tongue and forced the creature toward him. It suffered four strong and painful punches to the face and was flipped to the ground with a kick to the right side of the head.

The tongue monster tried to free itself from captivity again by slashing at John, but his armor and shields made the attacks look pathetic.

Still gripping the tongue, John decided to end it by lifting the viral creature's entire body high above his own head with both hands and brought it down on his right thigh with force so excessive, the move fractured the monster's side and spinal column, killing it instantly.

"Wow . . ." Cortana commented as John removed the tongue from his hand and let the body drop.

Cortana made a suggestion. "If we're going to confront more enemies like that, we might as well give them identifiable code names. Because of its long tongue, I think we'll call things like that 'Lickers'."

He agreed with her choice and moved on.

As the two made their way throughout the halls, they heard the sounds of gunfire, grunting, and screeching. It sounded like another "Licker" monster was nearby. John had a strong hunch that the gunfire was from the cop he was trying to find.

"That has to be him! Let's go, Chief!"

More gunfire rang out. Cortana and John were getting closer.

Two more zombies interfered and they were killed.

Just as he made it to the hall's door, it burst open fast and in sprang John's protected target Leon.

When he saw the tall, green armored Spartan standing in front of him, he forgot why he ran for a second and stared in surprise.

"Whoa! What the . . .?" he said in shock.

During his distraction, a long and slimy tongue belonging to another Licker creature wrapped itself around one of Leon's ankles, causing him to trip and lose his gun and be dragged away.

The Master Chief pulled out his magnum and fired a shot at the Licker's naked brain. Blood and brain matter splattered from the bullet hole now showing and the monster released its victim and died.

The rookie freed himself from the dead Licker's tongue, got his pistol back and stood up and stared at the Spartan. To him, he looked like a cyborg from a sci-fi movie.

Thanks . . .uh, who are you?" he asked the armored man.

The UNSC member gave his introduction.

"I am Master Chief John-117."

Leon was at a loss for words over his intro, but he let it be.

"Name's Leon S. Kennedy. I'm a police officer of this department. Well, probably the _only _police officer in the entire building or city by now."

John noticed a dark-red bloodstain on Leon's right arm and pointed to it.

Leon looked at the stain and explained. "It's from a zombie I killed earlier. It jumped me by surprise and had me pinned down. It didn't bite or scratch me, I used my knife to stab one of its eyes out and escape since my gun got knocked out of my hand."

The Chief nodded in belief and after several seconds of silence, Leon broke it when he suddenly remembered something important.

"Excuse me . . . John-117," he said and turned around. "but I'm looking for another survivor, a young woman dressed in motorcycle clothes. Her name's Claire Redfield and I told her to come here. Have you seen her by any chance?" he asked the soldier to which he nodded.

"I have someone keeping her under close protection and please, call me John."

Leon was relieved to hear that Claire was safe and to better his chances of survival, he offered to tag along with the Chief and he accepted. Now Leon had back-up for the rest of the search for Claire in this nightmarish adventure. He hoped he was right about suddenly joining forces with someone he barely met and not some government spy.

Because Leon had taken a tour here previously before the outbreak, he knew his way around the station a little and decided that he should take point. They came up to a gray, steel door and Leon tried opening it, but he failed.

"Unless we have the key to this door, we have no way of getting in." he said. He turned and saw his new ally getting ready to perform something and he immediately stood back.

Using all his Spartan-enhanced strength, John shoulder rammed the locked door down.

Leon whistled in awe from this man's incredible feat and followed him in.

The room was filled with rows of folders containing records that were of no use to them. Among the items there, Leon discovered a brown crank that laid on top of a cabinet. Since there was nothing to boost him up to get it, he asked the Chief to grab it for him and, after inspecting it, Leon kept it just in case.

Leon and John left the room and as they followed the path the Chief came from, he stopped Leon and he asked him why.

The UNSC veteran gave Leon the handgun bullet box he found. Leon put them in his pocket and thanked him.

Soon it was back to the hallway with the boarded up windows. But as the two ventured further, the windows were suddenly breached by pairs of zombie arms and hands, they tried latching onto Leon and John.

"Crap!" Leon was grabbed by three hands, but the Spartan pulled him away. The zombies then broke through the barriers and were now inside with the duo.

Leon fired at one, but after three shots his gun clicked, it seemed he forgot to reload. No time in doing so, he withdrew his combat knife and put his combat training to the test and the Chief removed his machete and mowed down the undead while Leon only killed a couple zombies.

"I sure wish I had your abilities and . . . whatever that is you're wearing on you." said Leon after seeing zombie blood smeared on the walls.

After getting across safely, past the Licker the Chief eliminated which Leon mistook for a live one at first, and to the room John breached in before, they made it to the second floor.

Leon saw a statue and clasped in its right hand was a shiny, red object. Whatever it was, he had a feeling that he may need it.

His thinking on a plan of obtaining the object was halted when he saw his armored sidekick grip the statue's hand and break it off. He took the thing out by force and handed it to Leon.

_Amazing_ Leon thought took said object.

It was a red, Virgin Heart diamond. The statue's plaque read:

"The god of the sun and the god of the moon. Their gaze upon me is the only thing that can release red soul."

Both of them knew nothing of its meaning and moved on.

Leon and his ally were in another hallway filled with gray walls and windows, and a room on the left side with "S.T.A.R.S. Office" written on its door.

With them were three police officer zombies. Leon killed one of them with a pistol shot to the head while John grabbed the other two, each by the front of their messy uniforms, and tossed them out through the windows. Their bodies shattered the glass and they fell a good three stories and crash landed on the concrete ground with a gory splat and a few cracks on the concrete under them.

The officer and the Spartan entered the S.T.A.R.S. room and found it quite amusing. Their were rows of computers on the desks, an old electric guitar sitting on a chair collecting dust, some clean water bottles which Leon helped himself to, and a locker that John opened and found a shotgun just waiting for action.

After Leon quenched his thirst, he noticed a blue book laying on one desk. It said "Chris Redfield's Diary" on the cover.

Leon picked it up and, although he wanted to, he refused to read any of its contents and decided to hold onto it for Claire when he found her. After all, since Claire was related to this Chris Redfield guy, he figured only she had the right to read it.

* * *

**Where Claire Redfield and Thel 'Vadam were . . .**

* * *

Claire Redfield took the stairs back down to the lower floor while her new alien buddy simply leaped off the balcony and beat her to the entrance.

Claire wondered who this new guy really was. If she knew, she would be in a bit of a shock.

Before they could proceed further, Thel stopped and turned to the woman.

"What shall I call you?" he asked her.

Baffled by the manner of which he spoke in, she answered.

"My name's Claire Redfield, but call me Claire. Be careful when we enter here, you never know what surprises lay in wait."

Unknown to her for now, Thel 'Vadam really did know what lurked ahead of them. His HUD picked up signs of more zombified humans inside.

He cracked the door open and Claire followed him in.

It was a messy office and inside were about nine zombies wandering aimlessly around minus the already dead body laying in front of the two.

Remembering how the previous zombie foes died from beheadings or heavy blows to their heads, Thel bent over, grabbed the late human's head by the sides and forcefully detached it from the body. Blood leaked everywhere from the gaping neck area.

"Why did you just do that?" Claire asked him. His action grossed her out.

"To prevent it from entering the stage of zombification. I repeated the task on that other corpse back where we confronted the giant abomination. Always assault the head of these infected to annihilate them quickly."

He just barely arrived in Raccoon City and yet he still knew one exact thing: all creatures, living or as of tonight, undead, had a common weak point: the head and brain.

Now Claire knew why that body in the hall went missing. She didn't even have to ask about the fate of the infected crows since she already had it figured out.

The biker and Elite readied themselves to fight the undead. Claire got both her weapons ready to open fire, but she was stopped by the Arbiter when he placed his left arm in front of her.

"Leave this to me." he offered and removed his plasma rifle. "My weapons are built with superior power and will kill them faster."

Claire put her guns down and stood by to watch as Thel 'Vadam raised his weapon and fired. The instant the heated plasma bolts splashed onto a zombie cop's face, it ate away at its head and flesh until it dropped dead. The alien calmly walked around the office and repeated his actions with the others without so much as a peep.

_Holy crap! First the bubble dome thing, then the blue bomb, and now this. Where did this guy obtain such incredible technology? _she thought.

The Covenant Separatist blasted another zombie in the chest and roundhouse kicked it away, then he stashed his gun away and got out his energy sword handles and activated them. Thel impaled three zombies together like a kabob and slid them off. He then chucked his right blade and the final infected like a tomahawk and pinned it against a wall.

With the zombie homicide over with, Thel retrieved his sword and turned his attention to Claire.

"All clear." he said.

Claire was too shocked by what just happened. She could not move, speak, or even think. Her mouth was agape and her eyes resembled the thousand-yard stare.

Thel was confused by her current state.

"Is there something troubling you?" he asked her.

Finally she snapped out of her mental coma and replied, "What was that?"

"This is not the first time I have battled infected." he stated.

"You . . .dealt with zombies before?" She assumed he was talking about that mansion incident her brother often spoke about the last time he was seen. But unknown to her, by "infected", Thel meant the Flood. She and her police friend didn't need to know about that since she, him, and whoever else still alive in the city would be long dead by the time the Flood parasites exposed themselves and caused havok far worse than this zombie outbreak.

He hesitated for a second before answering her.

"Something like that." he said point blank.

Claire bought it and searched the scattered papers for any information about her brother or this apocalyptic nightmare while the Sangheili gave himself a tour of the room.

She found a couple more handgun clips and stored them in her vest pocket.

With nowhere else to go and, despite what went on earlier, Claire and Thel had no choice but to head back up to the upper floor where the giant attacked her.

Once back outside, Claire carefully and nervously looked at the upper room, fearful that the giant might see them and attack on cue.

"Wait here. I will go and seek out that heathen." Thel offered and used his hoverpack to fly to the rooftop and descended back through the hole. Claire was amazed that he can fly.

Using his helmet's HUD, the alien inspected the hall for the threat and was glad to learn it was nowhere in sight, for now.

He poked his head out one window and gave Claire the "Come" signal with his right hand and within seconds, they regrouped.

"He's gone, huh?" she asked and Thel nodded. They came upon two doors. One was brown and the other was a blue. They took the brown one.

Their new surroundings was yet another hall, only this time it was brighter. Claire and Thel' Vadam walked to its right corner and discovered the nose of the crashed helicopter sticking out from the side of the area and it was nearly blocking the door in front of it.

The air suddenly filled with a random, violent scream. It sounded female. Claire almost jumped out of her wits while her ally remained calm as ever.

After the scream had died out, Claire instructed the alien into the other room.

It resembled an art museum. It was stored with discarded paintings and pottery designs everywhere. Who owned them all?

Up ahead were three wall statues, two of them were carved like women and the third between them looked like a woman dressed in medieval clothing with chains bound around her. From the looks of it, there seemed to be a secret compartment in the statue's breastplate.

Claire did her best to open it, but she failed.

"Hey, can you help me get this open please?" she asked him.

He approached the wall decoration and the Sangheili warrior placed his large hands between the plate's mini doors and pried them open with ease until the doors hinges broke and snapped right off in separate pieces.

Claire was impressed by his accomplishment and took the item from inside.

As the duo were about to depart, the glass dome above their heads shattered and a Licker dropped right inside with them. Even though it was blind, it hissed upon sensing their presence.

"Wait for me outside. I shall deal with this hideous life form alone!" Thel ordered and Claire obeyed.

The Licker spat its deadly tongue at the girl, but was stopped by the Elite, giving Claire precious seconds to make her exit. When she got out, instead of closing the door fully, she cracked it open for a peek of the upcoming fight.

The Licker forgot about Claire and turned its full attention on the armored alien from the future.

Thel 'Vadam, like always, readied for battle. He imagined what witty phrase the late Avery Johnson might have used to describe this beast if he were around. He always liked to crack jokes and use human slang terms several times during the war. He'd probably say something like, "Damn, you are one ugly motherfucker!"

The Licker pounced on the Arbiter and smacked him on the head a bit before its target latched a binding grip onto its throat with his left hand.

As it tried to impale the Sangheili through his concealed face with its tongue, he grabbed the wet appendage with his opposite hand, wrapped it around and yanked on it with god-like strength till it completely tore right out of the monster's mouth.

It bled heavily from this and screeched so loud, Thel 'Vadam silenced the monstrosity by taking the head in both hands and bent it so far back, its neck and esophagus tore open and its blood and vocal cords gashed out.

Even though Claire traveled to Raccoon City on an empty stomach, the sight of how her mystery friend eliminated the monster still made her want to blow chunks badly. She held it together when Thel emerged.

"Are you feeling alright?" he wondered. She answered with a yes and they retreated back the way they came. this time, they took the door to their right.

The next room was empty of life besides them. There was a U-shaped desk with a typewriter on it, two cushion benches, and another doorway ahead with a big box next to it.

Claire went and opened the box. It was a storage container and it housed four handgun magazine clips and one clip for her machine gun. She snatched them all out and put them away. She closed the lid and the pair exited through the new door.

They were now in the balcony of the police department's main office plaza. The enormous room had a dome ceiling with a fancy decoration that reminded Claire of the worldwide famous Michelangelo painting.

Below them on the main floor was a desk with an active desktop computer and a statue of a person donned in ancient era garb holding an instrument-like object.

On the far side of the balcony was an emergency ladder and six police zombies who spotted them and started limping to them.

Thel and Claire ran across to extend the ladder and she flipped its switch and nothing happened.

"Shit!" she muttered and turned to see the infected cops inching closer. She also noticed a circular bronze medal way in the back with a unicorn insignia on its front side.

"You see that bronze medal on the wall behind the zombies, Thel?"

The Elite zoomed in with his HUD and caught a glimpse of the item. "I see it." he said.

Claire continued, "We may need that so can you lower me down so I can inspect that computer and you get it, please?"

He agreed and helped her climb down safely and rushed to kill the zombies and fetch the medal.

Claire raced to the computer and found a message on the screen that read:

**DOOR LOCK SERVICE. HALL SIDE DOORS: UNLOCKED.**

She didn't know the doors here were locked until now, she didn't even know they were electronically controlled.

"Leon . . ." she said to herself when she figured he was here earlier and had deactivated the locks.

Thel killed the zombies, snagged the unicorn medal and hovered to where Claire stood. She told him that everything here was unlocked the whole time and was handed the medal.

She walked over to the statue and saw that it required the medal on its table in a hole shaped just like it and Claire inserted said medal in.

The statue slid forward toward the survivors and something shiny spit itself out of the instrument.

It was a precinct key with a blue spade on the handle and she grabbed it and put it away.

"Let us go through there." Thel said and pointed to a door with a symbol on it with human writing.

They went with his choice. When she gripped the handle and pulled, she was surprised that it was locked manually.

"Now how are we gonna open this?" Claire wondered.

Like before, Thel 'Vadam told her to stand aside and she watched in curiosity as her masked partner retreated back further and charged at the door like a football tackler. It gave in to his shoulder ram and clattered to the ground.

"Holy crap!" she said in a low tone to avoid alerting any undead that may be inside.

It was yet another office only more messier than the last one.

Uhhh . . .

That groan sounded human rather than a zombie. Upon hearing it, Thel withdrew his plasma gun again.

"I'll handle it. You keep a lookout for any more zombies." she told him.

"Very well." he said back.

While he did as instructed, Claire noticed a trail of blood on the floor that led to a small office corner and she followed it.

When she reached the trail's ending point, she discovered something she'd thought she'd never see: Lying limp next to a desk was another officer, a black male, only he wasn't a zombie, but he did look severely wounded and was coughing up blood.

"Hey, are you alright?" Claire asked the downed man and wanted to aid him.

All forms of help for him came too late because when she inched closer to him, she stopped when he slowly stood up and silently glared at the girl.

What Claire Redfield was next scared the daylights out of her.

The victimized officer started to mutate right in front of her. His skin tone changed to light gray, the pupils in his eyes vanished until the were ghostly white, and his hands and head twitched unnaturally and he let out the exact moan of the virus infected.

Claire Redfield had to face facts, the Raccoon Police Depeartment officer standing before her was no more. He was now a member of the living dead.

The biker worriedly stepped back and raised her gun at the new hostile foe limping toward her with his hands outstretched and his mouth drooling with infected saliva and hunger.

"Stay back! Don't make me pull the trigger on you!" she said to the soulless being.

Thel turned and saw Claire backing away from another zombie. He prepared to slay it, but Claire beat him to it and fired one bullet into the creature's brain and killed it.

Judging by the upsetting look on her face, the alien asked her, "Did you know this hu-person?" He almost used the term "human". He was uneasy about how she would react if he revealed his true form to her or to the one the Master Chief searched for.

His reason for helping her and any other human they may meet in this city was because he carried within himself the guilt from what his people did to the planet the humans in his time period called "Reach", even though he guessed that the human race probably had forgiven his species for their part in the Human-Covenant War.

He also carried the anguish he had toward his deceased former Prophets Mercy, Regret, and Truth, for playing all of his people for saps about the Halo installations, the so-called "sacred rings".

Claire looked at Thel, shook her head, and they left the office quietly.

* * *

**Here you go. To all who are new, the machete the Master Chief carries is based on one of the scrapped weapons from the beta days of Halo: CE.**

**The way the Halo characters fought the Lickers is borrowed from the game Aliens Vs. Predator(the 2010 version). The way Thel 'Vadam killed his Licker victim was my own idea. The kill moves the Predators use on the Aliens in the game kicked major ass and I couldn't resist adding them here.**

**More to come.**


	4. It's About Time You Got Here

**This chapter will not be featuring the Brutes like before. They are set to appear in the next chapter and this time, it will all be written as one chapter rather than in separate ones.**

* * *

Claire Redfield and Thel 'Vadam ventured out the back of the station's lobby after she unlocked its door with the precinct key from the dry water fountain and they found themselves inside a small file room. It was void of any threats which was good for them.

While they searched around for useful things, Thel saw some file cabinets with stickers posted on each one and his translator read them back as "Explosive".

He set his plasma rifle down and grabbed hold of the handle of one drawer and tugged lightly. It refused to budge so he tightened his grip and yanked the drawer straight out of its spot.

The commotion snagged Claire's attention and what she found resting in his hand was a small yellow device halfway wrapped in brown paper with "C4" written all over.

That thing was no doubt a live bomb! Putting her fear aside, Claire took it and stashed it away for later and they left the room through another backway. Now she needed to find a detonator for the little explosive. The thought of carrying a piece of C4 with a missing detonator ready to trigger it's deadly power at any given moment sent an unavoidable chill down her spine!

She tried to open the exit door, but she needed a lockpick for the job and she possessed nothing like that so she allowed the alien to handle this little task by busting it down like always.

Their new surroundings had three ceiling signs, one green and two blue. The walls were decorated with silver marble. There were three more doorways and on top of that, a stairway.

More zombies were present, but all of them had already been killed. Although they were no longer an issue for her, Claire had wondered who or what put them down. She guessed it was either Leon Kennedy or that thing that tried to kill her.

Thel 'Vadam somehow knew this was the work of the Master Chief.

Claire noticed a room with a sign that read "Locker Room/Darkroom". She went inside and found twin lockers on their right, a glass cabinet with small perfume jars standing in it, a typewriter sitting on a desk with other office supplies, a padded rotation chair, and a fancy camera.

There was, as the sign suggested, a crimson-lit darkroom inside and Claire investigated and found only useless police suspect photographs and other unread pictures. However, a small photo was discovered laying alone on the room's counter. She picked it up, being careful not to smear her fingerprints all over it(not that it mattered no longer thanks to the outbreak), and blew off some dust that almost blanketed the material.

In the picture was a young, smiling Caucasian girl sitting in a grassy knoll with her legs crossed and holding a basketball. She had brunette hair in a bowl-cut style and was wearing a green sports or cheerleader outfit with her midriff exposed and the "R.P.D." initials on the shirt, twin white wristbands and classic tennis shoes with the same color as her uniform. The only word written on the picture was "Recruit", meaning that this girl is or was a newcomer to the Raccoon City police force.

Whoever she was, Claire guessed she was long gone by now in one of two ways: death or evacuation from the city.

Behind the desk was another chest box which Claire went to open up. Inside the container was a lone revolver with "Colt S.S.A" engraved on it and next to the gun was the only remaining box of ammunition meant for it.

Claire picked up the weapon and opened the chamber. As she suspected, it was empty and so she placed the box on the table, opened it and started filling the bullets in.

While she did this, she asked Thel to open the two lockers for her.

The Sangheili turned his attention to the metal lockers. He remembered seeing them back on the UNSC ships, but he never actually knew how to open one as his people have never acquired them and he didn't have time to, so he just repeated what he did to that other metal contraption that housed the blue stone item by gripping the middles of both doors and tearing a gaping hole through them.

Claire gasped and turned only to learn what he did. For a second there, she thought another viral creature had breached into the room.

"You just love tearing and breaking things, don't you?" she asked him jokingly as she finished loading the magnum and took a look at the locker items.

One contained nothing while the other had a cool looking, blue demin vest complete with boots and jeans. The back of the vest jacket had a flame design on each arm sleeve and a logo on the back that said "Let Me Live". That phrase sounded familiar to her like from some tune she once heard on the radio, but she couldn't get her finger on it.

Despite a zombie apocalypse going on, she was just itching to try the new outfit.

"Can you wait outside for a while? There's something I want to do privately." she requested and he turned and left the room.

To pass time, he decided to do some investigating on the upper floor of the room for any more zombies, Lickers and who knows what else. He found some paintings nailed to the wall, he understood nothing about them and shrugged them off.

Beyond was another door and three concrete statues each resembling the upper torso of a human male. All three had missing arms except for the middle one whose right arm was raised up high. Two of the statues were gray and the other was brown. There was a plaque description on the one-armed statue and in its closed hand was a ruby red diamond. He decided on waiting for the human girl to finish her private task first.

The sound of a door opening and closing put the Elite on alert until he quickly remembered it was Claire and jogged to the stairway.

Claire was now dressed in the clothing from the darkroom. Thel 'Vadam did not know much about human fashion and decided not to ask about it.

Back in the 26th century, every human he encountered wore nothing but military uniforms and battle armor.

Snapping his mind back to the present, Thel asked if there was any need for the red diamond in the statue's hand up ahead. She got a good look at it and confirmed her choice and he snapped the statue's hand off and removed the diamond and entered into the next area.

Inside the new and barely-lit corridors were old mops and buckets filled with filthy water. They also found another zombie corpse on the floor and a shattered window next to it.

The duo poked their heads out and discovered two more dead zombies outside on the grassy knolls, blood puddles were flowing underneath their bodies.

"They must have been thrown out." said Claire. When she spotted the other body, she noticed a bullet hole lodged deep in its forehead. Again, she sensed that this was Leon was here and the zombie's death was his own doing.

A room on the left had a sign reading "S.T.A.R.S. Office" and without thinking, Claire ran inside hoping that her brother Chris Redfield and/or any of his friends from the S.T.A.R.S. unit were there.

Thel's radar began to detect two living presences within said room. One was his partner, the Master Chief, he did not recognize the other signal.

Claire's hopes died when she didn't find Chris, but she was relieved to see Leon Kennedy again. Even though it was only about an hour since they last spoke to each other, to her it felt like months.

"Leon, you're alive!" she said with joy.

"You too!" said Leon.

Their happiness was quickly steered away when Leon saw Thel 'Vadam standing behind Claire and Claire saw the Master Chief behind Leon.

"Who's that?" they said together.

The Spartan and the Elite stepped in to explain.

"Relax, Mr. Kennedy. This is the partner I informed you of earlier." said the Chief.

"He speaks the truth." the Elite said to Claire.

The two war veterans then began to introduce themselves to their ally's opposite.

They both shook hands with them and gave their own names, unaware that John and Thel already knew who they were.

"So, where exactly are you two from?" Claire asked.

The futuristic visitors didn't know how to correctly answer her question yet so they just said, "We come from outside of Raccoon City."

They made the decision to hold off on explaining their origins until they've escaped the town safely. Right now did not exactly seem like the best time for confessing their lives and what will become of both of their species half a millennium from the current time period when they were already going through too much with the outbreak.

After much deliberation, Leon and Claire asked their new allies if they could speak to each other privately to which they allowed and they did the same.

"It's great to see you're still among the living." Leon said to Claire.

"You too." Claire said back.

Leon then changed his mood from glad to regretful for what he was going to tell her next.

"It . . . looks like we're not going to find your brother anywhere in this city after all."

He picked up the blue book he found.

"This is his personal diary. I found it sitting here when I came in and held on to it for you. I figured only you should read it."

Claire took the diary and opened it. Her eyes thoroghly scanned every word written on the pages.

**August 8th:**

**I talked to the chief today once again, but he refused to listen to me. I know for certain that Umbrella conducted T-Virus research in that mansion. Anyone infected turns into a zombie.**

**But the entire mansion went up in that explosion; along with all incriminating evidence.**

**Since Umbrella employs so many people in town, nobody is willing to speak about the incident.**

**It looks like I'm running out of options.**

**August 17th:**

**We have been receiveing a lot of local reports of strange monsters appearing at random throughout the city. This has to be the work of Umbrella.**

**August 24th:**

**With the help of Jill Valentine and Barry Burton, I finally obatined information vital to this case.**

**Umbrella has begun research on the new G-Virus, a variation to the original T-Virus. Haven't they done enough damage already?**

**We talked it over and have decided to fly to the main Umbrella HQ in Europe. I refuse to tell my sister about this trip because I fear that doing so could put her in danger.**

**Please forgive me, Claire.**

After reading the final page, Claire closed her brother's diary.

While she was glad to know that he was still alive and out of Raccoon City uninfected, she still wished he had at least told her about his plans. The last time they spoke, she asked for his reason of leaving, but he just gave her the silent treatment and she was pissed about it. She now understood why he kept it to himself. She would have probably done the same if roles were reversed.

Leon interrupted her thoughts. "Did the book mention his current whereabouts?" he asked and Claire looked at him.

"He wrote that he traveled to Europe to confront something called 'Umbrella'. Any idea who or what that is? Because I sure don't."

Leon shook his head.

"At least he got out of the city safely, that's for sure. Now listen, there's no reason for us to stay any longer than necessary. Let's split up, look for more survivors and get out of here while we still have the chance."

Claire agreed with his plan.

While they conversed, the Arbiter and the Master Chief quietly discussed what they did while separated. Suddenly, after a long period of silence, Cortana spoke up.

"What happened with you and her?" she asked.

Thel 'Vadam took in a deep breath and explained everything and when he concluded his story, the Master Chief began with his. When he finished, they questioned Cortana on why they're roaming around in 1998 and she began her tale.

"Well, we have been stranded in space for a prolonged period of time, I don't know how long exactly. With you two stored in cyrosleep, I placed myself in a shut-down mode to keep from experiencing the dreadful stages of rampancy, better known as 'going nuts'. Then a sudden, rumbling vibration awoke me and I discovered that it was a ship emerging from slipspace travel. The three of us were then sucked through the slipspace's wormhole and within seconds, the hole delivered us here to this age and we, and the remains of 'FORWARD UNTO DAWN', drifted here. So, technically John, I guess you could say we're back on Earth."

"What did the passing ship look like?" John asked.

"It was a UNSC ship and I think the left side of it had a name engraved. It said "FOREVER'. That's about all I know as it happened so fast. Who would've thought slipspace travel was also capable of time travel as well?" She finished her statement with a sarcastic "Ha!"

When Claire and Leon were done with their chat time, something else clicked in Leon's mind.

"One last thing." he said and took out a small walkie-talkie. "Here's a radio. Take it so we can keep in touch in case anything happens."

Claire accepted the radio and went to interrupt the war heroes.

"Guys, we'd better get going. Leon and I are going to search for more survivors in the station."

"Do you wish for more assistance from us?" John offered.

Claire thought about it and gave her answer. "Good idea. I don't know about you, but your buddy here sure proved himself to be a deadly foe against those things out there and, although we find your advanced technology to be strange, it's pretty useful."

"You have no idea what this guy was capable of during my journey." Leon told her, referring to the Chief.

Before they could leave, John stopped them and removed Cortana's chip from his helmet and laid it out on his palm.

Mr. Kennedy, Ms. Redfield. We would like you to meet another comrade of ours."

The chip glowed and out came Cortana in her usual, holographic imagery.

"Greetings, Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield. I am CTN 0452-9, but you may call me Cortana."

For a split second, there was nothing either survivor could make of what they were seeing. Zombies, crows, mutant Lickers resembling minions from the fiery bowels of hell itself and now these two bulky armored individuals dressed like cyborgs from a sci-fi convention and a small-sized, high tech blue and purple hologram of a nude woman. Can this night get any more bizarre?

Claire was the first to talk to the female A.I.

"A pleasure to meet you . . . Cortana."

She tried to offer a friendly handshake with her, but her own hand just whizzed right through Cortana's body and she chuckled from that.

"You too." she said.

John placed Cortana back in his helmet.

Just then, the sound of an active fax machine near the exit beeped and a couple of freshly printed documents emerged from the machine and the printer beeped again and shut itself off when it finished its job.

Claire grabbed the papers and read them.

They said:

**Federal Police Department Internal Investigation Report.**

**To Mr. Chris Redfield from the Raccoon City Police Dept. S.T.A.R.S. Division.**

**As per your request, we have conducted our internal investigation and discovered the following information:**

**1: Regarding the G-Virus currently under development by Umbrella Inc. So far it is unconfirmed that the G-Virus even exists. We're continuing with our investigation.**

**2: Regarding Raccoon Police Chief Mr. Brian Irons. Mr. Irons has allegedly received a large sum of funds in bribes from Umbrella Inc over the last five years. He was apparently involved in the cover up of the mansion lab case along with several other incidents in which Umbrella appears to have direct involvement. Mr. Irons had been arrested under suspicion of rape on two separate accounts during his days as a university student. He underwent psychiatric evaluation as a result of the charges but was released due to circumstantial evidence as well as his phenomenal academic standing.**

**As such, extreme caution is advised when dealing with him.**

**Jack Hamilton, Section Chief Internal Investigations United States Federal Police Department.**

The fax message ended there and Claire placed the papers back on the printer.

She turned to Leon and asked who Brian Irons is due to his new and now extinguished law enforcement career.

Leon looked at the documents and was stunned when he learned all about the dirty and illegal activities committed by the man who was supposed to be the boss of him and every other former officer in the city.

"I've never met the guy in person, all I know is that he was my superior the moment I was hired to work here. I can't believe I was going to take orders from a corrupt police chief like him."

Ending it there, they made for the exit.

What they all encountered next took them by suprise, except for Thel and John who already knew there was another survivor around thanks to their helmet radars.

It was a young girl and she was being approached by another police zombie.

* * *

**Like I said, the Brutes and the UNSC are up next.**


	5. The Brute Revenge

**Here's the new version of the Brute Revenge chappie.**

* * *

**The 26th century . . .**

* * *

In the cold, deep recesses of space, a United Nations Space Command ship called "FOREVER" appeared after it ended it's slipspace jump. It was manned by a crew of UNSC marines and their former enemies, the Sangheilis, better known as Elites.

Half of them were newcomers and others were aging veterans of the Human-Covenant War. Both factions had embarked on a mission to seek out and retrieve the two heroes responsible for bringing an end to the long and dreadful conflict, the Spartan super soldier John, his A.I. companion Cortana, and the Covenant Separatist co-founder Thel 'Vadam. While many had believed them to be dead, there were some who refused to accept that and lived with the thought of them still being alive out there somewhere. In a way, they were right.

The distress beacon signal from Cortana was finally picked up by a retired, UNSC member who served with the Master Chief and with one of the late members of Noble Team from the heroic yet failed defense of Reach. The instant the signal reached him, he jumped from his seat and ran as fast as he could to inform everyone about it.

When word got out, the order to gear up and depart on the search and rescue mission was given. Hearing of their leader's discovery, several Elites joined in.

Now here they were, floating in space searching for their target. The search mission lasted for about two to three weeks and still nothing came up. Week four was coming and some of the crew members(the humans mostly) were already growing weary and wanted to call it quits and head back.

It's been forty years since the Human-Covenant War had concluded and the Covenant Separatist co-founder and Humanity's last Spartan soldier in existance wound up M.I.A. at the end. The Master Chief was not listed as Killed In Action because the UNSC had a policy forbidding the placing of all late Spartans in that rank. To raise morale during the fighting, a motto was stated that Spartans never died and they were simply Missing In Action.

Aboard the ship, one of its personnel, a 25 year old female armorer by the name of Jamie Hunt, was making her way around carrying a soup and sandwich meal tray as requested by the leader of the mission.

In the main lobby, she saw dozens of UNSC marines and Sangheilis killing time with movies, books, card and virtual board games. Some Elites were being taught how to play chess, checkers, poker, backgammon, and arm wrestling(they dominated the latter game) while others were viewing Earth films with the humans and enjoyed only the horror, science-fiction, action, and comedy types as they had found the romance films too lovey-dovey and the superhero and fantasy films a bit goofy.

She passed by two marines locked in a virtual checkers match. One of them was a medic named Raymond Dickinson and his opponent was a sniper marksman named Alex Berry. Two Elites observed the match from the sidelines, both wore Zealot armor, but one's was dark blue and the other's was orange.

Alex played as the red pieces and he appeared to be winning, especially when he had five pieces, four of which were kings while Raymond, playing as the black pieces, had only two regulars and one king.

When Alex killed Raymond's only king piece and placed his final regular on the opposite side of the virtual board and demanded his rival to king him, Raymond Dickinson, knowing his odds of victory had dwindled south, deactivated the entire board and walked away without saying a word. Strategy games just wasn't his thing.

"No need to be such a sore loser, Raymond!" Alex said in a gloating manner and he stood up from his seat and began to dance and sing.

"Go, Alex, go Alex! It's your birthday, it's your birthday! Hey-oh!"

The two Elites just looked at one another and shook their heads in confusion and embarrassment from the man's behavior. They've witnessed humans act similar to this all the time and they found this one the wierdest.

Jamie laughed a little and resumed her task. Back in her trainee days, Alex Berry was known to clown around while their drill instructors were absent. If he was ever caught by them, they would have beaten the humor out of him and not just as a metaphor

Inside the giant ship were high-tech machinery operated by almost everyone. There were two, very large rows inside the main hangar and they were occupied with UNSC vehicles on the right and Covenant Separatist vehicles were benched on the left.

Both sides had large and small warfare vehicles of the same types. The UNSC's were six Warthog-class vehicles, three of them equipped with an M68 gauss Cannon each and the last ones were one M12A1 Light Anti-Armor type and one M831 Troop Transport, four M274 Mongooses, and two M808B MBT's, wildly known as Scorpion Battle Tanks.

The Elite's vehicles were six Type-32 Rapid Assault Vehicles or Ghosts, four Type-48 Light Assault Gun Carriages, also known as Revenants, and three Type-26 Assault Gun Carriages, or as humans dubbed them, Wraiths.

When Jamie neared her destination, she found her commanding officer scribbling down something on his virtual computer. Jamie didn't bother asking what it was.

"Sir, here's the food you asked for." she said.

He stopped his activity and turned.

"Thanks, Hunt." he said as she placed his tray on his desk. The marine left him to his matters and he sat down ready to dig in. He sure worked up an appetite.

All of a sudden, a heavy thump rocked the ship and the emergency alarm system was now blaring everywhere. The shipmaster let out a loud expletive as his tray spilled to the steel floor of his room and some of the hot soup splashed on his left arm and he cursed from the burning pain.

The slide doors opened and in stepped Jamie again.

"Sir, are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine. What's the situation?" he asked as he wiped some of the soup from his wet limb.

"Let me go check." she said and ran out of the room. Minutes later, she returned.

"Report." he said.

"It appears that we are under attack by a Covenant Loyalist ship! It's flying behind us as I speak, sir!"

This was unexpected. "How many ships and what faction?"

"Just one sir and it's being piloted by the creatures called Brutes! Orders?"

"Have several folks at the turrets and give my order to engage the Brute ship and its inhabitants. Head over to the armory and load yourself and everyone else up. Go!"

"Yes, sir!" she said and bolted out of the room in a jiffy.

When she reached the armory, she found one marine laying next to a wooden box crate unconscious. His head was unprotected and bleeding from the side. She heard a medic running by and requested a quick service to the downed marine.

At last, she made it to the armory. Inside were piles of UNSC and Covenant weaponry. One side contained M7 submachine guns, both with and without suppressors, the MA5 assault rifles, BR55 battle rifles, M90 CAWS shotguns, M6 handgun models, SR99 sniper rifles, W/AV M6 G/GNR's A.K.A. Spartan Lasers, several combat knife designs and frag grenades.

The Covenant weapons were Type-31 needle rifles, Type-25 directed energy rifles, Type-50 directed concussion rifles, Type-33 guided munitions launchers or "needlers", Type-51 Covenant carbines, and a few energy swords.

Jamie began taking as much as she can for the fight against the savage Brutes. She took two M7S suppressed submachine guns, an M90 CAWS shotguns, six frag grenades, and a kurkri knife, the same model the Spartan named Emile used back on Reach. Sure, there are lots of kurkri knives, but this one is special to her. Why? Because it was given to her by her late mother, Elizabeth Hunt, long ago.

Back on Eridanus 2, Emile and Elizabeth met as kids and as they got older, they became close until Emile was snatched and sent to the Spartan 3 Program for training. They reunited years later when he succeeded, but only for a day as he was to be deployed for battle against the Covenant.

The last words Emile said to her were, "I promise you that I'm gonna make those Covenant dirtbags beg for forgiveness when they meet me." and she said to him, "See that you do, Emile. Now, go and kick their sorry asses!" He then handed over one of his kurkri blades to her as a gift and they shared one last hug and kiss before he left. He was never seen or heard from since.

One day, she received a phone call and was informed that Emile and the entire planet of Reach had faced total annihilation and it devastated her for years to come. This encouraged her to enlist in the UNSC with something besides saving humanity: blood, Covenant blood.

After the misunderstanding between the humans and Elites was discovered, Elizabeth scoffed at the idea of the two races becoming allies and she refused to trust and accept the Sangheili's truce offer. But after the war ended, she eventually forgave them for their part in Emile's death and decided to place her anger on the Jiralhanae and other Loyalists. They were the ones who fooled the Elites into thinking the Halo rings were great, religious icons and that humans were evil and giving them their genecidal orders. Years later, she moved on, wed another man, had Jamie Hunt and lived a happy life. When Jamie was in her early teens, Elizabeth died of natural causes and Jamie took up her mother's vengeance mantle.

It wasn't long before troopers and Elites arrived to load up as well. Within minutes, the armory was cleaned of all weapons.

Two more blasts shook FOREVER, causing a blackout to blanket the ship's interiors completely and forcing all crew members to adjust their helmet's night vision modes.

A cutting sound was being made and the Elites and marines nearby, including Jamie, turned their attention to it and readied themselves.

The question that flooded Jamie's mind was: why were the Brutes going through with this? Maybe they were out for revenge for their loss in that war decades ago. Yes, that had to be it. After all, they were very aggressive to all of their enemies, especially the Elites on account of their previous orders to slay them and take their place as guardians of the Prophets to experience their so-called "Great Journey". The Sangheili named Thel 'Vadam, tried to convince the then-Brute Chieftain Tartarus of the Prophets' deception, but he refused to listen and wound up dead for his ignorance.

The cutting was growing louder and faster. It was only a matter of time before all hell would break loose and pints of blood was spilt. Jamie swallowed hard and focused.

"Come and get it, you bastards." she whispered as she aimed her submachine gun down the iron sights. Inside, she was a little fearful as this was her first encounter with the Jiralhanae race. She only heard of them through her history studies and wondered how their skill in battle was, she was going to learn that the hard way.

Two minutes later, a forceful breach was heard. A hole had been cut open and in stepped the armored, muscular primate-like aliens, the Jiralhanae, better known to humans and Sangheilis as Brutes.

"Open fire!" someone shouted and a barrage of bullets, plasma, and energy spikes were unleashed on both sides.

Several marines, Elites, and Brutes were killed during the crossfire and the walls and ceilings and floors were decorated with red, blue, and green blood.

Eventually, the Brutes gained the upper hand in the tide of the battle and began their advancement into FOREVER. Jamie managed to escape and ducked for cover as she had to reload. While doing so, she peeked from her hiding place and witnessed a Brute savagely execute a marine by hoisting her up and impaling her face and head onto the sharpened tip of an iron hook. The unlucky UNSC member never even got to scream horridly the moment it happened and was dead.

Jamie cupped her hand over her mouth, trying to combat her regurgitation urge. Now she knew what their nature was like. She could not believe her mother faced such wicked creatures like them. While the murderous Brute soldier was busy praising himself for his kill, she tried to get over her shock and unsheathed her kurkri blade and tip-toed her way over.

_Come on, Jamie. You can do this. _she thought.

When she got the hideous being right where she wanted, Jamie cupped a hand over the Jiralhanae's over-sized mouth and plunged the blade into his chest four times until he fell down and was bleeding heavily.

He tried reaching for his Brute Shot, but Jamie slapped the weapon away and drove the knife deep in his chin in an uppercut fashion, leaving the bloodied blade sticking out from the scalp.

Unable to fight anymore, the defeated Brute saw the human female standing there in shock before succumbing to his wounds.

Jamie removed the knife with a shaky hand. She felt somewhat queasy from what she had done and bent over and vomited. This was the first kill she had ever gotten, but she remembered that it was one of the laws of survival. Had she refused to carry it out, it would have been the other way around and she'd be in the dead Brute's place. Inside, she told herself that it's natural for everyone to feel guilty from their first kill and continued on.

Alarms, screams, fighting, and gunfire echoed throughout FOREVER's halls and corridors as the marines and Elites battled the vicious Brutes for control over the ship.

The Brutes killed their way through using their signature weapons that consisted of Spike Rifles, Maulers, Brute Shots, Brute Plasma Rifles(which were red-colored versions of the original Elite Plasma Rifles), their curved Jiralhanae combat knives (they were similar to the one Jamie had only longer in length), and only a few of them wielded the dangerous Gravity/Energy Hammers.

One Elite Zealot in gray armor charged with his Energy Daggers and did battle with a Brute Captain who was dressed in gold armor and was gripping twin Brute Plasma Rifles. He fired at the Zealot, hitting him until his shields were down. this deactivated his daggers as well and left him no choice but to fight hand to hand.

The Brute captain would've fired again, but the weapons overheated and burned in his hands. Before they had a chance to cool off, the Elite tackled the Brute football style and punched away until the target was bleeding, missing a couple of teeth, and feeling disoriented.

Taking this opportunity, the Sangheili grabbed his enemy by the wrist and dunked his entire head into a nearby water gallon. The doomed Jiralhanae gurgled and thrashed around trying to surface for air, but it was useless and within minutes, three to be precise, there was no more struggling and muffled screaming and the victim dropped dead to the floor. One marine gave a "nice work" signal to the Elite and he bowed in respect.

Too bad for both of them, another Brute, this time with a Gravity Hammer, caught the human and Zealot off guard by shoving the Sangheili from behind, making him crash into a wall and lose his footing. Before he could get back up and fight back, the Brute raised his hammer and plowed the deadly weapon onto his body, crushing the Elite and splattering his blood and entrails everywhere like a squashed melon, including all over the killer himself. He just smiled a wicked smile and resumed his killing rampage by decapitating the marine.

Back near the ship's armory room, Jamie Hunt cleansed her blade of the blood of the Brute she killed earlier and put it back in the sheath on her right hip. She removed her suppressed machine gun and wandered the halls, the only three things that swarmed in her mind were making it to FOREVER's main controls, saving the crew and vanquishing the intruders.

About eight hostile Brutes were instantly gunned down by her, this time she felt less afraid from killing them all. She was almost there, all she had to do was get through the kitchen area and past the medical room and all would be taken care of.

Unfortunately for her, another Jiralhanae suddenly dropped in from behind her, gripped her shoulders and slammed her hard against the ship's hallway wall, making her drop her gun and other weapons. The armorer grunted in pain as the hostile enemy roared in her face and tossed her up against the ceiling and allowed her to fall to the floor. She landed on her back. Jamie tried getting up, but she was pinned to the ground by the Brute's massive foot on her right shoulder blade and chest area.

The mighty Brute creature had the rank of a major in the Jiralhanae military system. He wore a blue helmet and armor from head to toe except for his forearms, and was armed with a spiker even though he never bothered using it for now.

"You weak, foolish human! You and your pathetic kind shall perish on this ship of yours! The defeat of my race will soon be avenged!" he said to her.

Jamie's struggling was of no use since this remorseless giant weight near a ton.

"Up yours, you overgrown asswipe!" she said. This earned her more foot pressure against her body. The pain from being crushed by this abomination was becoming almost too unbearable for her, she wanted to just pass out and feel nothing.

_No! That's not an option! This bastard's going down one way or another!_

The Brute warrior laughed in pleasure from his victim's choking, gasping cries.

"You are no match for me, human! I can easily tell that you are new to your people's military. If you ask nicely, I shall make your death swift and painless." he taunted and pressed his foot down on Jamie even harder.

Her vision was beginning to blur and blackness was dawning upon her. Close to death by suffocation, Jamie saved herself by removing her knife and slicing the evil Brute's exposed ankle flesh. The Brute yelled and staggered back. He looked back up to find his victim suddenly charging at him with her weapon of choice, he repeated her action with his own knife.

Both blades clanked as the two clashed with one another, neither refusing to back down. The Brute major had an opening and tried to deliver a killing blow to Jamie, but as physically powerful as he was, this Jiralhanae warrior had one itty bitty weakness: slowness.

Jamie barely evaded the stab attempt and went for one of her own and succeeded by slashing her enemy's left shoulder blade. The furry creature's face expressed pain; he ignored the new wound and continued hacking away at her.

All those harsh, dodging drills she took in training were really paying off as the armorer quickly avoided every move her opponent made. Without acquiring even a single hit, the Brute was starting to grow enraged.

"Damn you! Hold still so I can end you!" the Jiralhanae complained.

After three minutes of missed swings, he gave up and pulled out his Spiker gun.

"Dodge this, human!" he shouted and fired at Jamie.

"Crap!" she said and ducked behind a wide pole, she barely missed getting shot in the process.

The Brute major ceased his attack and walked closer to her.

Without her firearms, it was down to just her knife. Bringing a knife to a gun battle was by far one of the oldest and stupidest things to ever do unless one was really skilled at knife combat. Luckily for Jamie, she was one of them.

Forsaking her fear, the UNSC member waited for the target to inch closer.

Closer . . . closer . . .

He turned a corner and trained his gun on her, but failed to pull the trigger as the woman plunged her blade right into his hand and made him drop his firearm. The hand bled and the beast howled in pain.

Next came three fists to the face, a reverse roundhouse kick that damaged his jaw and knocked him over and before he knew it, he felt the kurkri blade being removed from his wounded hand and soon came face to face with it when she buried it in his right eye.

To the Brute, there was no describing the severe pain he was endearing right now. What made it worse for him was the knife going into his opposite eye. More stabbings followed. After eleven inflicted stab wounds, the injured Brute coughed up blue and purple blood. Thanks to Jamie's knife, he was now blind and helpless. He felt the barrel of Jamie's shotgun entering his bloodstained mouth and within a second, she squeezed the trigger and blood and brain matter spewed out from what used to be his head. Whatever afterlife he and his kind believed in was now his new home.

Jamie exhaled slowly to calm herself down, gathered her belongings and ran off. She was already getting used to killing the Brutes.

Along her travels, she bumped into an Elite Ultra who struggled with two Brutes.

Jamie helped out by shooting one dead with a headshot from her shotgun and the Ultra finished the other off by taking the foe's gun and jamming the blade part into his neck, severing the jugular vein. Blood squirted from the dying Brute and poured all over like a fountain and Jamie and the Elite left him there to perish.

"Thank you for your assistance, human." the Sangheili said.

She just waved a quick salute to him and continued on until she finally came acrossed the control room's entrance way. She turned her attention to the door's electronic lock system and tried to remember the correct comination to type in.

Her fingers fumbled around in her hands.

_What the hell was that number again? _Her brain said.

She forced her mind to think hard until she remembered and her eyes widened.

2321. That was not only the lock's access number, it was also the year the ORION Project, also known as the very first Spartan program, was born.

After typing in the combination, the doors slid open ans she hauled herself inside. To play it safe, she closed the doors.

"Whew! I made it!" she congradulated herself.

The room was huge. Loads of switches, buttons, and levers were everywhere blinking and beeping, waiting to be used.

Above her head were small television monitors that beamed surveillance camera footage of FOREVER's different sections and rooms from left to right and up and down, including outside of the room. All they showed to her were more fighting aboard and nothing new.

Turning away from the monitors, Jamie tried reluctantly hard to figure out everything. Until now, she, and a few others, were denied access into the control room at all times.

"What to do, what to do, what to do." she mumbled. She tried flipping one switch, but all that did was deactivate the right row of the monitors and in a panic, she reversed her mistake and the screens were back on.

An orange button caught her eye and she slowly hovered her left hand over it, hoping it performed something helpful.

Gunfire from a UNSC weapon and a very loud slam from outside sounded and she quickly spun around and trained her machine gun on it.

The bellowing roar of another Brute made her adrenaline flow through her veins. Jamie turned to the monitor surveying the entrance and found three more Brutes killing off another fellow marine.

Without anyone around to stop them, they then focused their attention on the control room and stood there as if they were waiting for orders.

One of them began pounding on the door, his two accomplices soon did the same.

Nervousness quaked in Jamie again, this time out of fear of discovery. Like her, they too were heavily armed. Two of them had stolen Elite weapons and one had a gravity hammer strapped to his back. Not good!

To Jamie Hunt, at least they didn't know who she was or that she was inside. That, or they were just assuming the room was occupied.

It looked like this room was about to become a battleground as well because Jamie was silently readying herself for a three on one deathmatch.

"Hi-ho silver . . ." she whispered and swallowed hard while standing perfectly still with her machine guns in hand. If she was going to die here, she was determined to take them with her to the grave and this time, she was ready to slaughter them without remorse.

Jamie breathed heavily. She was preparing herself for a showdown with the Brutes, possibly a final one.

After a short time of endless pounding, which began to annoy the holed-up armorer so much, the Brutes decided to forget about it and planned to find more foes to murder.

Suddenly, a few more Elites came running by and, seeing each other, both teams engaged in deadly combat.

Jamie witnessed the messy brawl on the monitors and breathed a sigh of relief. She was a bit saddened that some of the Elites would perish, but at least the fight would buy her some time to get to work.

Placing her weapons down except for her knife, she fumbled her hands and eyes for the right button or switch.

She found a blue lever and gave it a try. That activated the emergency sprinklers all over the hallway outside. The two warring alien races didn't care that they were getting wet.

"Whoops."

Another lever, a black and green one, caught her eye and she flipped it. What that did this time was turn on the P.A. system and she cursed in annoyance. All this fighting and figuring out what activates what was quickly stressing her out so much her brain felt like a nuclear bomb ready to explode.

The P.A. speakers gave off booming static so loud that both parties outside stopped to clap their ears shut, including Jamie.

"Aggghhh! Dammit, that hurts!" she screamed.

Realizing that her voice was audible through the speakers, she hastily deactivated the P.A. switch and instinctively clapped a hand over her mouth to shut herself up even though it was no good now.

_Nice going, dumbass! Your chances of getting caught and killed by those evil, psychotic Kongs just went from none to slim! _Her mind scolded.

After the unbearable noise died out, the aliens resumed their fighting until only one Elite Ultra, armed with a plasma repeater, and one Brute Chieftain, who carried twin Elite plasma rifles, were left standing and battered.

"I know one of your pathetic human friends is hiding in that room. Let me pass or die!" the Brute threatened.

"I will never yield! I would rather perish fighting you and your kind! Your deceased leader was a complete fool who wasted his life on those 'sacred rings' and so are you!" the Elite said back.

Feeling insulted by this speech, the Covenant Loyalist roared angrily and fired his weapons at his enemy and the Ultra did the same.

Like the Sangheilis, the Jiralhanaes were also armed with energy shields. However, at times when their shields powered down from battle, their muscular build and armor served as a fine replacement as it proved to help these vicious warriors withstand bullet and plasma fire for a short time.

Both side's guns overheated, making the Chieftain drop one of his to aid the other. The Ultra however, was still free to pound the Jiralhanae member during the recharging process. But the enemy was prepared as well and they engaged in a wild unarmed battle.

Blows were exchanged, blood was drawn, and bruises appeared on their beaten bodies. It looked like a street fight sporting event.

Getting back to matters at hand, Jamie soon began to grow frustrated from pressing the wrong buttons and switches and wanted to call it quits when something laying on the floor entered her field of vision. She bent over and scooped it up.

Her misery from failing her mission and getting killed vanished instantly when she saw what she was holding. It was a technical manual on FOREVER's controls. Maybe it contained instructions on what she sought in here.

She flipped through the pages like mad, trying to find the right page.

"No, nope, no, not even close, yes!" she mouthed.

More grunting and another slam struck her ears, but she ignored the commotion and read away.

"Ah, here we go."

But just when she was about to get the goods and absorb the info into her brain, she snapped her head from the book in time to see the Elite Ultra sailing right through the door and into the control room like a ton of bricks.

The alien slammed into a fire extinguisher storage unit and the extinguisher that was perched inside toppled out and the Brute quickly rushed inside, borrowed it and delivered nearly a dozen hard-hitting blows on the helpless Sangheili, fracturing his armor shields and injuring his left arm in the process and when all was finished, the Jiralhanae creature dropped the item and discovered Jamie Hunt.

"Ah-ha! So there _is _a human in here, I knew it!" he chuckled evily. Since his plasma gun was destroyed, he confiscated the downed Elite's own weapon and proceeded to fire at Jamie.

"Uh-oh!" she said and used immediate, evasive action the moment the enemy opened fire. The plasma bolts sparked and melted holes into some of the equipment. If this kept up, he could wreck the entire room and her chances of completing her goal.

Jamie picked up one of her machine guns and fired relentlessly on the hostile Brute soldier. Because his shield was out of service thanks to his fight with the Elite, the bullets tore into, and through, his muscular body. They didn't kill him, but it still hurt.

"Die, you worthless hu-"

His threat was suddenly cut off as the injured Elite took a stab at the Brute Chieftain's lower back area with his energy dagger.

The Chieftain screamed in pain and turned and violently smacked the warrior with his own plasma weapon, knocking him down again.

Bleeding but standing, the now-angered Jiralhanae tossed the gun away and decided to finish the job with one of his dead teammate's hammers since his was damaged earlier. He fetched it and went back to the fallen Separatist member.

"Farewell, Covenant traitor!" he said and prepared for the kill.

Even though his face was concealed behind his mask helmet, the injured Elite refused to express fear at all like all members of his kind did when facing a death situation. If there was an afterlife somewhere as his former religion claimed, he vowed to avenge his defeat with eternal torment on the other side when his time in this life ceased one day.

Too bad that had to wait because he was saved when Jamie reloaded her gun and pumped more rounds into the remorseless creature. When the gun dried again, she didn't bother reloading as she threw it aside and jumped on the back of the Brute and pounded and wrangled him like crazy. It was like a child versus an adult.

This went on for about a minute. Eventually, Jamie grew weary of it so she took out her knife and tried going for a fatal stab to the neck like she did with one of the others. But before she could, the Chieftain rammed the back of his own skull against hers, flipped her over his shoulder and threw her across the room pretty hard with one hand.

The wind got blown out of Jamie's lungs like a fist to the gut as she slammed against a wall and fell over on a table with computers and rolled off and onto the floor. Blood and bile spilled out of her mouth when she coughed. She prayed anything important didn't get damaged inside her.

While on her hands and knees groaning and struggling to return her blurry vision to normal, she saw the vicious Brute approach her with his hammer curled in his hands, ready to deliver the final blow.

"You lose!" he bragged and raised the weapon. Without her firearms and too physically weakened and injured to evade the attack, Jamie Hunt closed her eyes and prepared for death to sweep her away.

But then her luck changed.

"AAAGGGHHHUUUGGGHHH!"

An unforgiving scream was heard and Jamie immediately opened her eyes to see that the scream was from the Brute when he received a painful impalement in his back and out through his chest from the injured Separatist's energy dagger blades. Jamie had never been so relived.

While the two were busy with their struggle, Jamie slowly, yet painfully, got back up. She still had a job to do and she was going to see it through and the Brute bastard wasn't going to screw it up for her.

Things were going in the favor of the Sangheili warrior as he plunged his weapons repetitively in the Brute until he kneeled over, feeling weak to stand up. He was bleeding out and his vision converted into red color.

Before the Elite can kill him, the Brute made a surprising move by gripping the pole of his hammer weapon and rammed said pole into the Elite's stomach really hard. The strike totally depleted the warrior's shields and he bent over and clutched his affected area with both hands.

The Chieftain took this chance to dish out all he had on the unfortunate Ultra and ended it with an uppercut with the gravity hammer.

Away he flew and his landing spot just so happened to be right on the dashboard with the controls Jamie was trying to find the whole time she was alone in there: the lever to FOREVER's Slipspace Hyperdrive System as well as a beacon signal button meant for signaling Earth reinforcements.

The Sangheili Ultra slid off the side and fell dead on the floor.

Seven more Jiralhanae's arrived to assist, but they learned it was too late when they saw their leader was already dead and laying in his own blood pouring from his wounds. All of them were armed to the teeth and, after everything Jamie just went through to survive against one Brute in a room only to be confronted by seven more, all she could do was complain.

"Aw, come on!" she said.

Because her weapons were right where her enemies were standing, there was no way of reaching for them alive and unharmed. Unless more surviving marines and Elites wandered by and helped her out, and with nothing but her kurkri knife, there was a thirty percent chance that Jamie would escape the room with her life intact, the other percentage was a possible and probable death at their hands.

The reinforcements stared at their leader's corpse and then at Jamie Hunt. The thing that fueled their melon-sized heads now was a taste for revenge.

This was the part were she had to think of a plan and fast. She glanced over her right shoulder and remembered the dashboard her late Elite buddy crashed on.

_One last chance to make things right. One chance, do NOT blow this opportunity out of the freaking water!_

Summoning all the leftover strength she had left, she made a forced dash for the controls. The hostile Brute soldiers chased after her with with crazed roars.

Inches away, Jamie raised both of her hands out and pulled down on the lever for the ship's Slipspace mode just in the nick of time as the Brutes caught up to the marine armorer and seized her.

Her grave execution by them was interrupted by a female voice of FOREVER's recorded announcement.

_**Warning: FOREVER's Slipspace Hyperdrive System has been activated! For your own protection, all personnel aboard are urged to proceed to, and fasten themselves into, all slipspace safety pods! Repeat: All personnel must find protection pods and place themselves directly inside them immediately! You have about fifteen seconds to comply to these instructions to prevent injury and/or death from the jump!**_

Another voice, a male's started counting down the seconds to slipspace travel.

**_The slipspace hyperdrive jump will commence in t-minus fifteen seconds . . .14 . . .13 . . .12 . . .11 . . .10 . . ._**

With the Brutes immobilizing Jamie Hunt, there was no way of escaping, finding and snugging herself in one of the ship's pods in time and she could either suffer a grave injury or die from the jump unprotected.

The Brutes however, were martyrs like the Elites. They had no fear of death as long as they claimed a victory or took down one or some of their enemies with them.

One of them, a Brute with the rank of a Stalker, picked up the dead Chieftain's hammer and slowly walked over to the retrained marine as she struggled to escape.

Well, human. Now you shall die for your defiance against us and for murdering our great leader. As your species would say, 'see you in hell!" he said with a maniacal smile written on his face.

This time, Jamie Hunt really did lose all hope in survival. Her captors forced her onto her knees while holding her down by her wrists.

The Stalker raised the mighty and deadly hammer with pride, ready to strike her dead.

She closed her eyes again and lowered her head face down. At least she fought hard like the tough-as-nails UNSC marine she worked hard to become when she joined. Now she was going to die an honorable death like one.

**_3 . . .2 . . .1 . . ._**

The seconds that was said, FOREVER's hyperdrive technology initiated and warped both itself and the attached Covenant Loyalist ship into the powerful masses of slipspace.

All time and space froze instantly like a photographic image. Not one sound was made.

* * *

**To mcknight93: I enjoy Chris/Jill fluff too, but it can't here because the story is set during RE2, Chris was absent from Raccoon City during the outbreak. He traveled to Europe to confront Umbrella Inc as he said in his book and Jill is getting ready for round 2 with the infected.**

**To Like A Boss2: Thanks. I also read some of your material. It's good. Make more or I will teleport to your home and I will slap you . . . I will slap you like a bad, bad, donkey okay! Just kidding. . . or am I?**

**Hope you all like it.**


	6. For Two Bricks, They Fight Pretty Good

**The last retype is here. Enjoy.**

* * *

**Back to the present . . .**

* * *

All eyes were set on a young girl backing away in horror from another zombified police officer. She had short, cut blonde hair with a pink comb on top, a long sleeve shirt with white and blue designs, a school symbol on the right side of her shirt, a necklace with a locket, blue shorts, and brown shoes.

"Is that a girl . . .?" Claire had to adjust her vision better thanks to the dying lights inside.

The nameless child screamed and ran off in the opposite direction.

"Wait! Come back!" Claire pleaded, but the girl ignored her and the group gave chase, killing the zombie along the way.

The team barged into a big room with two corridors, one beverage vending machine and a sofa couch. They didn't see the child anywhere in the premises, but what they did find were nine more zombies feasting on a fresh corpse and a new surprise: a trio of infected dogs.

Their fur was almost disassembled and parts of their ribcages and muscular systems were exposed. Their eyes were completely ghost-white although one of them was missing an eyeball, and their sharp teeth were stained with blood and chunks of human flesh. Upon seeing the humans and the alien, they growled and barked at them fiercely.

The zombies discontinued their late-night meal and focused on the group of survivors. Leon and Claire dealt with the zombies while the Spartan and the Elite handled the undead canines.

Claire gunned down three zombies while Leon shot and killed four.

The infected dogs pounced on John and Thel 'Vadam. Thel grabbed one in mid-air by one of its hind legs and tossed it through the door they just came from with one hand. The dog let out a high-pitched yelp as it crashed through. The Elite followed the beast, knocked it back down with a kick and finished the canine with a plasma shot to the head execution-style.

The other two ganged up on John. He punched off one, seized the other by the snout and killed it with a strong neckbreaker and without looking, he whipped out his machete and aimed it at the other dog charging at him. The animal was too late to stop or change its direction and impaled its head into the blade by accident and died.

After the coast was clear, Claire got the group's attention.

"We have to find that girl before something happens to her!" she said.

They tried to figure out which one of the two ways the lone kid may have ran off to.

"How about we split up to seek the child out?" Thel suggested.

Claire agreed with his plan and advised that she and him head for the door with the wooden barriers and for Leon and John to take the door with the fancy lamp beside it.

She felt beads of sweat on her forehead and wiped it off with her left hand. It was getting hot within the department and, Zombie outbreak or not, she was in need of water. Leon looked like he could use some too.

Claire observed the soda machine. It was still active and had only one row of water bottles left as the rest were either sodas only or sold out and they all cost a dollar. The sodas were not a wise choice because the sugar would increase their thirst and now was a bad time for that.

As stupid as it was, she checked her jeans pockets for change and found nothing.

"Leon, do you have two dollars for water?" she asked him.

Leon inspected his pockets and held a pack of gum.

"I got gum." he said disappointingly.

John walked to the machine, ripped it open and handed the drinks to the officer and biker and they gulped them down till they were satisfied. They thanked him and took spares with them, if they were going to look for that girl and roam around Raccoon City for a prolonged period of time, they would have to keep their hydration strength up.

Thel and Claire took the path she aimed for and John and Leon led themselves to the other direction.

* * *

Claire and Thel cautiously walked to the barred door. Claire figured that due to the small hole on its underside, the girl had to have crawled through.

It was locked again so the alien brought it down.

The path led them back to the hallway with the gray statue again.

They ventured all the way back down the stairs, moving past the deceased zombies. While they did, they heard strange noises coming from behind them and turned to look.

To their surprise, six corpses of the dead zombies began to rise, but this time, there was something much different about them.

Their skin tone had changed into a darkish-red color. Their fingernails had extended like claws, and their usual moans had been toned down to a more fearful growl. Despite being undead, they looked as if they were angry.

"Impossible! These zombies were killed! How are they still alive?" said Claire.

To make matters even worse, when the new, revived zombies saw the girl and the Sangheili, they charged at the duo at full speed. Movement like that made them twice as dangerous than the slow, shuffling zombies.

Claire reached for one of her weapons, but had no time to shoot as one of the red zombies knocked her down.

"Help me out!" she screamed as she struggled with the zombie trying to harm her. Being attacked by these things was making her miss fighting the original ones.

Thel 'Vadam knocked back the sudden threats thanks to his Armor Lock ability, and while they were down, he whipped out his Covenant Carbine and fatally shot the zombie attempting to make a meal out of Claire.

Some of it's blood splashed on Claire's clothes when the small, purple crystal shards exploded. She thanked him for the assist and saw the other five coming in hot.

"Look out!" she warned. He spun around and found himself swarmed upon by the undead gang. His armor's energy shields cracked and sparked, nearly all the way, and he dropped his gun.

"Take cover!" he told her while struggling to keep the zombies at bay.

Feeling like he needed some help, Claire scrambled for her gun, aimed and fired at one of them in the back.

The zombie she hit turned around, moaned that new creepy, exhaling sound, and chased after her.

It reached out with its claws and swiped at her. It missed as she side stepped to the right and the zombie ran into the wall and fell.

Before it rose again, Claire stomped it back down with the sole of her shoe and fired another shot, this time on its head. Unlike the normal zombies, it took about more than a single headshot to kill it. It seemed that these new types were a bit resistant to head wounds and injuries except for decapitation.

She turned to help Thel 'Vadam, but hesitated when she saw him doing fine alone, so she stood her ground and watched.

He brought out his energy swords again and engaged the hostile foes. Two of them had their torsos severed with one strike. Their lower halves collapsed. Blood and some internal organs spilled out onto the floor as they crawled and died.

It was disgusting to look at for Claire, but at least it did the trick.

Another fast zombie attacked and Thel punched it in the jaw, which knocked some teeth out, and impaled the enemy right through the stomach with his left blade and roundhouse kicked it off. It landed against the stairs and died.

The final zombie lunged at the alien and hopped on him piggyback style. The Elite dropped his swords, flipped the creature over his shoulder and onto its back, and finished it off by crushing the entire head with his foot, blood and brain matter splattered everywhere like a melon.

Claire was at much of a loss for words to describe what just happened. Zombies, Lickers, dogs. What next, mutant spiders, plants and alligators?

"Are you alright?" he asked as he put his twin swords away and wiped the zombie's bloodstains off of his armor.

"Y-yes, I'm fine." she said. "Did you and your friend fight these kind of zombies during your stay here?"

Thel shook his head. "No. these infected beings are a surprise to me, too. Perhaps we will discover how they came to be eventually."

Claire wanted answers to that as well and they both moved on.

They ventured into the file room again, then back in the office where Claire found and eliminated the officer who mutated in front of her earlier.

Before leaving, Claire remembered seeing a little black box object on the desk near the dead cop. She picked it up and studied it.

The device in her hand was a remote detonator, probably for the C4 sample she was carrying. Like the bomb, she felt a second shudder run through her.

She had to be really careful to avoid activating the C4 by mistake. That's one of the last things she ever wanted, the others were becoming zombie chow and losing that girl to any of the infected.

Soon they were back in the R.P.D.'s main enterance.

Thel looked up at the second balcony where he battled the zombies for that medal Claire needed and spotted two of them had now morphed into red zombies while the other bodies remained dead due to being beheaded by the Separatist.

The red creatures hissed and jumped down to attack. Thel simply grabbed his plasma rifle and neutralized them on the spot. Super zombies or not, they were still no match against the power of a Covenant weapon. Claire wished she had weaponry like him.

She looked at the door on that same balcony where she first came in and asked Thel to levitate both of them there. He told her to hold on tightly, which she did, and he hovered to the requested floor. They detached and sprinted for the door and went in.

They were in the same room with the safe chest and typewriter and quickly left and found themselves back in the area with the crashed helicopter through the wall.

Claire tried opening the damaged door next to the chopper, but her effort was useless so she planned to use the C4 to blow it open. Thel suggested that she conserve it for later and once again shoved the obstacle down with one hand.

The new path was dark and quiet, too quiet to be exact. Another room was seen and Claire wanted to check it out, but like previously, she was stopped by Thel.

His HUD radar detected movement nearby. It was either another human survivor or a viral creature.

"My sensors are detecting a living presence beyond our position. Take caution."

Claire was confused by that and the two entered with their weapons held.

The new area looked rather ravishing. There were shelves littered with textbooks, fancy solid gold trophies, rows of photographs with people resembling wild west cowboys hanging on the back of the room, a chandelier on the ceiling, and a couple of animal bodies on display on the right side of the room's main desk, its chair had its back turned to them.

On the desk, Claire noticed a woman laying on top. She had long, blonde hair, a white dress that covered almost all of her with bloodstains on the waist, a necklace choker with a star as a decoration, and black high heeled shoes.

The blood markings on her looked gruesome.

Claire wanted to ask for her name and if she needed any help, but then she suspected something wrong.

She gave a further inspection and gasped upon learning that the unknown woman was already dead! This wasn't the presence Thel 'Vadam's HUD picked up, but something was still alive in there with them. Something else also informed her that this was the same woman whose scream she heard the last time she was around.

The chair suddenly spun around and sitting in it was a man aiming a pistol right at them.

The man sported a mustache, brown hair that was combed back, and he was wearing a buttoned black vest with a white long sleeved shirt underneath, a red tie, black pants, and shiny black shoes.

On his vest was an ID tag with a small picture of his face and next to the photo it said "Brian Irons: Raccoon City Police Chief."

He realized that his targets were not the living dead as he expected and lowered his gun.

"Oops, I'm terribly sorry about that. I thought you were another one of those zombies." he said. His tone of voice seemed calm and shaken simultaneously as if he were trying to lie his way out of something bad.

"Are you Brian Irons, the city's police chief?" Claire asked him.

The police chief nodded. "Yes, that's me. And just who are you two?"

Claire was about to answer him, but he interrupted her. "No, don't bother telling me. It won't make any difference. You'll just end up like all the others."

The biker and alien examined the dead woman. Irons knew what they were pondering and explained his knowledge of her.

"That's the Mayor's daughter. I was ordered to look after her and keep her safe, but I failed miserably. Just look at her."

They did. Her eyes were locked in an endless, lifeless stare.

"She was a true beauty." Irons continued. "Her skin nothing short of perfection. But soon, she will putrefy and turn into a zombie. It's happened to everyone else." He finished his statement with a depressing sigh.

Unable to accept what she heard, Claire asked, "There must be some way to prevent it."

Brian Irons' eyes lit up. "In a manner of speaking, there is."

He aimed his gun at the dead girl's head, but held his fire.

"Two ways to do that are by putting a bullet in the brain or decapitating the head completely."

Irons lowered his pistol again and rotated his chair to gaze at his beloved animal trophies. Claire and Thel looked in his direction.

"And to think that taxidermy used to be my favorite hobby. But no longer."

He faced the duo again, his face looking more upset.

"Please, I'd really like to be alone now." he said and waved his hand in dismissal.

Without saying anything, they honered his wish and left the police chief's office through a second door on the left.

The next place was another hall complete with a golden tiger statue and two more chandeliers.

Like before, all was silent except for their own footsteps.

Suddenly, Thel 'Vadam's HUD sensed another life form. Unlike Brian Irons, this one moved.

"There is another among us." he warned her.

"Is it a survivor?" she questioned.

The Elite shrugged his bulky shoulders and marched forward with the woman following behind.

When they reached the hall's other side and entered another art room, they heard running footsteps. They were not alone.

Since the art gallery was coated in darkness, Thel switched to night vision mode and led Claire around.

More running was heard, then it stopped.

The two followed the source till they ended up in a large, storage section which was also darkened.

While Claire fumbled her hands on the walls for a working lightswitch, Thel already got a glimpse of the runner.

It was that same human girl he and the others found outside the S.T.A.R.S. office not too long ago. She was crouched into a fetal position with her hands hugging her knees.

The girl looked at them quietly, hoping they wouldn't discover her here even though one of them had accomplished that.

In a matter of seconds, Claire found a switch and flipped it on. The moment that happened, Thel deactivated his night vision.

Her eyes enlarged in surprise when she discovered the girl huddled at the corner. The kid quickly stood up and tried to make a break for it, shrieking as she did so. Claire stopped her escape attempt by grabbing her left wrist.

"Wait!" she said to her.

"Let go of me!" the child demanded and struggled to free herself.

Claire reasoned with her as best she could. "Easy, easy there! We're not zombies! You're safe now."

After hearing that, the girl conceded her useless struggle and hugged Claire. Claire ran her hand through the kid's hair to calm her down.

They broke off and Claire kneeled down to her eye level to speak to her. Thel just leaned against a wall and silently observed the humans.

"My name's Claire. Who are you?"

The girl looked at her and gave her name. "Sherry."

"Do you know where your parents are?" Claire asked her.

"They both work at the Umbrella Chemical Plant near the city limits."

"Chemical Plant? Then why are you here all by yourself?"

"My mom called and told me to come to the police station, she said it was too dangerous to stay at home."

Claire felt bad for her. "By the look of things, I'd say she was probably right. But it's getting dangerous around here too. You'd better come along with us."

Sherry took two steps backward. Her face gave a fearful expression.

"But there's something out there. I don't know what it is, but I saw it! It's much bigger than any of those zombies and it's coming after me!"

As if on cue, a sudden, angry roar emerged from far away. All three of them turned upon hearing it. Whatever made that shout sounded colossal as Sherry put it.

"What was that?" Claire asked and stood up. Her feelings suspected that it could be the giant man in the coat whom the Separatist defeated, however, she dismissed the idea when she remembered that it never uttered a sound even when it was hurt by Thel's plasma bomb.

Unlike the two humans, Thel 'Vadam expressed no fear whatsoever like always, but he did rest his hands on his energy sword handles. Should that thing desire a rematch, he would be more than happy to accept.

"That's what I was telling you about! It's here!" Sherry then bolted out of their sight and out the door.

"Sherry, wait!" Claire called to her, but no avail. She and the Elite rushed out to catch up to her, but it was too late. The poor girl had already vanished somewhere all alone in the infested police station.

Claire turned to her armored escort.

"Can you find her with your technology?"

He tried getting a lock on Sherry's signature, but nothing came up. In fact, Sherry wasn't the only one absent on his radar, Brian Irons' signal was nowhere to be found too.

"My apologies, but I cannot. That police chief, Irons, is gone as well."

That did not sound good.

They rushed back to Brian Irons' domain . . . and saw that he was gone, along with the dead girl's body.

"Chief Irons . . .?" she said aloud.

No answer. Where could he have vanished to?"

Something was left behind on Irons' desk and Claire scooped it up. It was another key like that spade key from before, only this one had a heart symbol on the top. What use could it possibly have?

Two new objectives had now crossed their minds: the first was to find Sherry and the second was to rendezvous with Leon Kennedy and the Master Chief.

* * *

John and Leon were led into what appeared to be a library. Bookshelves, a few fancy Renaissance-era paintings, and other historical treasures were inside collecting dust. It was eerily silent, but at least no viral monsters were around.

They searched around the bookshelf contents for anything useful. Nothing but books with topics on criminal justice, police academy training, computers, and historical biographies about the station and its founders.

While the Spartan had a glance around, Leon decided to investigate the upper floor of the library. He marched up the stairs and the second he placed his feet on the wooden floor, its flanks creaked a little. He had to be really careful or an accident could occur and he didn't want that.

Ignoring the book on his right as they were more historical documents, the rookie officer made his way across the balcony, the floor creaked from every step taken. He managed to make it to the other side when a part of the floor he stood on gave way to his weight and sent him falling down to the bottom floor. With cat-like reflexes, he landed on his hands and feet.

The Chief came to his aid.

"Mr. Kennedy, are you okay?" Cortana asked.

Leon coughed from the dust in the air.

"Yeah, I'm fine, and call me Leon." he said and hoisted himself up. He disliked being called "mister" for it made him feel like an old man despite being in his early twenties.

He looked around and tried moving the bookshelves away to squeeze through, They didn't budge, meaning he was stuck.

_Oh great . . .I'm trapped here. _He thought. Or was he?

Leon found a glowing red button on the wall next to one of the shelves. He pressed it and the shelf blocking his path suddenly inched away, leaving him just enough room to squeeze through and get out.

When he turned back, he noticed some triton symbols on each shelf and more red buttons. Wanting to learn their meaning, the duo pressed the buttons in different orders until the right pattern was set and something opened where Leon fell.

He went back and found an item hidden underneath a stone portrait of an ancient warrior dressed in armor and holding a sword in one hand and a severed enemy head in the other, shouting victory.

The discovered item was a spark plug with the design of a bishop chess piece on its end. Leon decided to take it.

The cop and the large soldier decided to leave the library through a set of double doors and they soon found themselves back in the main office of the station.

They scanned the premises and found dead zombies everywhere, including a few with crimson-colored skin and heads. Leon definitely didn't remember fighting any zombies like that. He assumed that this was the work of Claire Redfield and other armored escort of hers, Thel 'Vadam.

Judging by their wounds and slash marks, Leon was convinced Thel pulled all this off as he preferred killing the undead in a gruesome fashion.

Eventually, their exploring led them to another office room with blue doors at the end and the usual, more zombies.

John went ahead to engage the creatures while Leon snooped around for clues and whatnot. He found a little room with a black safe inside, unfortunately it was wielded shut and he had no clue what the combination was.

When the Spartan was finished, Leon called for him. He informed the Master Chief about the safe and needed help breaking it open, which he did by punching a hole through its door and tearing it off.

A box of shotgun shells was inside and Leon snagged it, loaded some into his shotgun and stored the rest for another time.

As they began walking to the blue doors, John's HUD warned him of more enemies beyond the doors. He told Leon to brace for more undead.

The second they burst through, the zombies John predicted limped toward them with starving mouths hanging open and they were soon brought down.

One tried to sink its teeth into John, but he didn't bother to look or dodge as he strongly backhanded the ghoul's face which instantly rotated its head and killed it.

"Nice one, Chief." Cortana complimented.

They entered another hallway, this time a narrow one and with more barricaded windows.

Another gang of undead attacked and were once again killed with ease. Three doors came into view, two were iron, one with a bar frame, and the last one was another blue door.

"I will investigate these two and you search that one." said John and pointed to the doors he referred to.

Leon gave a slight nod and selected the second iron door while John had to force his way in through his since it was locked. His choice was an interrogation room with a rectangular desk with an empty water bottle, a copper-colored cord, another spark plug with a rook chess design, both of which he took, and a one-way mirror.

Leon's choice was the other side of the interrogation room. He found another bookshelf and a desk with a coffee maker machine, a typewriter, and a small, silver key. He took the key and, looking at the mirror, he saw his ally in the next room.

The Chief was looking in his direction, which looked kind of creepy for Leon, and motioned for both to meet up outside. They exited and presented their new findings.

Then suddenly, a pair of Lickers crashed through the blocked windows and hissed at the officer and Spartan soldier, their tongues ready to strike.

"Not these guys again!" Leon complained and he aimed his handgun at the Licker on the left and fired while John handled the other.

One of the pistol's bullets tore through the beast's right shoulder. Roaring in anguish, the Licker whipped its tongue at Leon. It missed and reared back for a second try, but its face was shot at four times, making it cradle backward in pain. Leon then saw something moving on its chest, something alive. It looked like an organ, a beating heart, and it was exposed outside the creature's chest.

_Maybe that's the Achilles Heel of these things. _He thought and decided to put his small theory to the test.

Because the creature wouldn't hold still for a clear shot, Leon brandished his combat knife, aimed with care and tossed the blade right into the organ as fast and hard as he could.

The Licker screeched and thrashed madly as its heart heavily burst with blood like a water balloon. Leon stepped back and waited for the monster to die to retrieve his knife.

The Master Chief saw this and repeated what Leon did. He stunned the Licker with a hard kick to the face. Then he roughly picked it up by its throat with his right hand and slammed its back against one of the walls. He shaped his free hand like a dagger and deeply plunged it into the heart. Like its partner, the monster's reaction to this fatal move was a harsh scream, followed by heavy blood loss and death.

"That is just plain gross!" said Cortana.

"Then why'd you look?" Leon asked humorously. Cortana said nothing back.

Minutes later, Leon, John, and Cortana entered a hallway with shattered windows and a stairway that led downward. Grabbing more shotgun shells from the floor, the team made their way down the stairs.

They were now in an underground area. It's corridors were bearly lit and it stank like hell. Every step they took echoed, especially John's.

His HUD radar began to blink four red signatures. Those signatures moved, stopped, then moved again, this time in their direction. As the targets were nearing, clicking sounds were heard.

Click . . . click . . . click . . .

That sound made Leon's blood run cold. He knew what it meant: more infected dogs.

Four infected dogs appeared from the corners. They spotted the two humans and growled, saliva dripping from their bloodstained teeth. One dashed forward and the other three followed suit.

Leon used his shotgun this time and John used only his machete. As he said before, he had to conserve whatever ammunition he had left for a bigger challenge.

One pull of the shotgun's trigger sent two of the animals flying back, one had its head blown to bits, the other, although it now had an amputated front leg, continued to lunge at the cop.

Leon ended its altered life with a kick and a stab through the forehead with his knife. He used this opportunity to reload while the remaining dogs combated his armored bodyguard.

One dog got punted in the face from the steel tip of the Spartan's boot, the hit was so hard that one of its eyes was painfully pushed way back into the socket and blood flowed.

While that unlucky canine tended to its new injury, John finished off its pal by grabbing its hind legs which made it angry and lash out with its claws and teeth, and pummeled its head against the concrete floor until the skull cracked and it died from excessive brain damage.

The last canine was killed when the Chief wrapped his right arm around its neck and choked it to death.

As they resumed to their mission, they started hearing more unwanted sounds. This time, it was heavy thumping.

THUMP . . . THUMP . . . THUMP . . .!

Tiny particles of rubble rained down from the ceiling and the lights flickered on and off. It was as if an earthquake were unfolding.

There were no zombies in sight and the only monsters here were the dead dogs. Leon wondered what else was stalking them. It sounded a lot worse.

John's radar was picking up another signature, a strong one. A single red dot was displayed on the radar and it was inching awfully close to their current position.

"That can't be good." said Cortana.

Leon and the Master Chief readied themselves for the new, upcoming threat.

John's war-built reflexes kicked in and he shoved Leon away in time as something large demolished its way through a wall next to them with ease and missed a fist attack meant for Leon that could have seriously injured or killed him.

Leon stood up and was stunned at the creature who tried to harm him.

"Who the hell is that?" he stated.

John and Cortana had a pretty good guess that this new enemy was exactly what Thel 'Vadam was talking about back in the S.T.A.R.S. room: Reaching the exact height as the 26th century visitors, green trenchcoat, bald, unarmed and silent. Its distinguishing features, however, were the hideous burn markings on its upper body, in part due to Thel's plasma grenade.

Whoever this unwelcome stranger was, it sure wasn't here to help them.

The unknown humanoid saw Leon and made a reach for him, but was shot in the chest with his shotgun. It stumbled back for a moment and continued coming. It didn't bother pursuing the Spartan. It was as if it was programmed to hunt and kill Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield only. Why was this thing trying to assassinate them? It sure didn't appear to be hungry for flesh and blood like all of the city's undead inhabitants.

"Get to safety, Leon! We'll take it from here!" Cortana ordered and the Chief proceeded to ram the hostile stranger into a wall on its front side with blunt force, making a dent, and heaved it over with a vertical suplex.

The silent assailent, while down, responded by aggressively elbowing John and slapping him away. The blows stumbled him back. This monster's strength was as equal to the super soldier's for it completely depleted his armor's energy shields by 97 percent. His armor soundd the recharging signal and within ten seconds, the shields were restored to their original state.

Damn! Watch yourself, John!" Cortana said.

The behemoth turned its expressionless sights to Leon who was fleeing the scene. It clenched its massive fists and tried catching up to him, but again, John got in the way by grabbing its left shoulder, forcing it to turn around and punched the enemy in the face.

The intruder attempted to grasp the armored human by the neck with both hands and had him for about two seconds until the Master Chief freed himself by jabbing the fingers of his right hand into its eyes.

The stranger recovered and lunged for him again, but was foiled when John pushed back its hands with his own and both were deadlocked, struggling for the upper hand of the battle(no pun intended).

When Leon was as far away as possible, he stopped and watched the battle for a moment. He was amazed at what he was seeing, if this were an action-horror movie, this fight would be nominated for, and probably win, an award for "Best Fight Sequence". Leon then escaped through a double metal door.

The struggle ended when John kicked his advesary in the stomach. He dodged five hard-hitting blows from the gargantuan thanks to his quick, physical reflexes and strength, and countered with a another strong punch to the creature's left temple and a sweep kick, tripping it.

Some bruising was beginning to show, nevertheless it expressed no sign of pain or weakness.

It may have been seriously dangerous for a regular human to confront a creature such as this one, but when it comes to well-trained Sangheili warriors or Spartans, especially John and Thel 'Vadam, things would indeed be very different and right now was the perfect example.

It rose back up and viciously charged at the soldier with all its might with a few two-handed hammer strikes and a haymaker, all of which missed and hit thin air and one wall.

Soon it kneeled down from exhaustion and was left wide open for a massive chain combo that consisted of a jump and elbow drop to the back of its head, a knee bash to the face while it was bent over holding its head, two jabs to the chest and ribs, a swift uppercut to the jaw, one kick to its right shin, making the titan stumble on one knee, and the brawl concluded when John performed a DDT pro wrestling manuever on the silent stalker that clearly did the job of knocking the target unconscious upon impact.

The enemy was left in a bloody and beaten pulp, it never got an opportunity to defend itself from any of the Master Chief's attacks.

He simply clapped all dirty particles from his hands while Cortana was impressed.

"Holy crap, John! All that time in hypersleep hasn't altered your combat skills, huh?" she commented.

With the nameless assassin out of the picture for now, John and his A.I. friend departed to catch up with Leon.

* * *

**Well, that concludes the retyping of this and the older chapters. The next chapter will have the FOREVER crew and the Brutes crash landing to 20th century Earth just outside of Raccoon City. If any surviving UNSC members and Elites thought the Brutes were tough hellraisers, wait till they meet the infected population of Raccoon City.**

**To new readers, the fight between the Master Chief and Mr. X was inspired by a youtube vid of two Halo Spartans duking it out in a game series entitled "Dead Or Alive", with a little WWE stuff in it.**

**Enjoy the chapter.**


	7. We're Not In The 26th Century Anymore

**Now comes the new stuff. The future is about to collide with the past. **

**BTW, sorry for keeping you waiting, busy, busy, busy is what I was up to. **

**What? You really thought I gave up on this story? *Pfft!* In your dreams!**

* * *

Jamie Hunt slowly regained consciousness sometime after blacking out from the Slipspace jump. Her head throbbed as if a bomb just went off inside and a wave of lightheadedness and nausea washed over her, but quickly got over them.

She thought she was dead at first, but found that she was still inside the control room alive and breathing. Glass shards, paper, blood, guns, bullets and plasma energy littered the floor, walls and desks and there were Brute and Elite corpses laying in different corners of the room.

The young marine arched her head sideways and gasped in surprise when she noticed a dead Brute laying on the floor and facing her direction with unblinking angry eyes, it was the same Brute that nearly killed her before the jump was executed. She shoved the lifeless corpse away with both hands and sat herself upward. After getting her vision back into focus, she climbed to her feet, exited the control room and, with eyes wide and mouth agape, saw that not only did the ambush of FOREVER come to an end and all the Brutes wound up dead, but the ship's entire crew were killed also. While she was upset over the loss of her teammates and the Elites, she felt no ounce of sorrow for the Brutes, why should she. If there is a hell or someplace similar to it in the Covenant religion, she hoped they suffered there for eternity.

Jamie wandered around the corridors of the destroyed ship looking for survivors.

"Hello? Anyone still alive?" she called out, her voice echoed off the walls and beyond.

It wasn't very long before she stumbled into the ship's cafeteria and discovered six survivors inside, some sitting in the table seats and some slumped next to walls. There were three UNSC marines and three Elites which were two Spec-Ops class types (one of them donned the Assault Harness battle armor while the other wore the Special Operations Harness armor) and one Ultra.

The marines were the people Jamie saw playing their board game when she was delivering food to the captain's room prior to the surprise attack, Raymond Dickinson and Alex Berry. The third was a woman named Kristine Harris, one of the ship's electricians. All of them seemed to be injury-free, a little dizzy maybe, but nothing serious.

Jamie coughed after inhaling some debris smoke. Raymond helped steady her when she tripped and fell on one knee and the group looked for any kind of weapon to arm themselves with.

The ship's corridors were littered with the bodies and blood of marines, Elites and Brutes along with their weapons.

Jamie managed to arm herself with the same guns and equipment she had during the attack. She also snagged more frag grenades, ten this time, and called out to the survivors and they began taking as much as they needed immediately. Raymond, Kristine and Alex armed themselves with two of every firearm they could find and with lots of ammunition clips and the same number of grenades Jamie had and the alien soldiers did the same, adding Energy Swords and a few Jiralhanae-modeled weapons to their stash as well.

After re-equipping themselves, the small gang of UNSC marines and Covenant Separatists wandered around until they reached the exit door of their ship and stepped out into the vast open.

What the group discovered was that their ship had landed on a planet and in a plain open field with a road on their right that stretched out for miles toward an unidentified city in the distance. Since it was nightfall, the marine survivors turned their helmet flashlights on and the Sangheili trio activated the night vision modes in their helmets. The marines used the eyepieces from their helmets to zoom in on the town.

All of them saw that the city was in a state of great ruin. Several structures, short and tall ,were in flames and smoke and ash floated aimlessly into the night sky. Some powerline poles were bent over and cackled from electrical sparking while others stood in perfect form.

The Elite warriors had no problem observing the distant destruction thanks to their helmet's zooming modes. Despite not finding their mortal enemies anywhere, they falsely believed that the Brutes were responsible for the city's annihilation.

"What do we do, now?" Alex asked.

"Let's head over there to that city, there might be people who need help and can tell us where the hell we are." said Raymond.

"Before we do, we should commence a sweep search around the area for any surviving Brutes as a precaution." Kristine suggested and the small band did just that.

No Brutes were accounted for save for the deceased ones.

The group directed themselves back inside to see what became of FOREVER's UNSC and Covenant vehicles. They reached the area of the ship that stored them and discovered that all but a few were utterly destroyed from the crash. The only vehicles left to use were one Warthog (the M12A1 Light Anti-Armor model, a.k.a. the "Rocket Warthog"), one Mongoose, one Ghost and one Revenant. Jamie, Raymond and Kristine called dibs on the Warthog with Jamie in the driver's seat, Kristine riding shotgun and Raymond mounting the Warthog's attached rocket launcher. Alex drove the Mongoose vehicle with no passenger sitting behind him, the Elite Ultra operated the Ghost and the Spec-Ops duo took the Revenant.

The team gathered their vehicles outside FOREVER, but before heading out, they took a gander at their wrecked ship again and soon realized a new problem at hand: getting off this rock. Unknown to them, they were on Earth, just not the Earth they were accustomed to, especially the UNSC crew.

"Are repairs to this transportation vessel possible?" asked the Ultra Elite.

The crew stepped out of their vehicles and walked back to the control room. The Elites stood their ground while the marines inspected the room's only two functional computers except for Alex who was not much of a whiz on them.

According to the computer data, the ship's engines and Slipspace drive suffered minor damage from the crash. They were still able to run, but not yet because they were all overheated from either the Slipstream jump, the crash, or both.

"Better make yourselves comfortable on this planet people, because it looks like we're trapped on it until the engines cool down and can be operated again and that's gonna take some time for that to happen." Kristine said.

"How long do you think that'll take?" Jamie asked.

"Hours, days, weeks maybe, I don't know." she replied blankly. She wasn't irritated, she just had no other answer to give them.

Alex spoke up. "When it's time to leave, we have to remember to execute that Slipspace jump thing as far away from this world as possible. We wouldn't want a similar incident like the one with New Mombasa to repeat itself. I may have been a bit of a goofball back in military school, but I studied well enough like everyone else."

With everything said and done, the team put the engine problem aside for now and began driving to the mysterious city, hoping there may be someone or that can help them out or at least have a ship with Sliptream capabilities that was ready to use.

They wish.

"By the way, what do you think happened with the Brutes and their vessel?" Raymond wanted to know.

"I don't know and frankly, I don't give a rat's ass about them." was Jamie's cold response to that question. The rest of the marines just shrugged their shoulders and agreed with her comment, the Sangheili's couldn't hear them over the roar of the engines. If they had, they would have expressed their fair share of hatred for the Jiralhanane, too.

During the ride, Alex came up with a small joke and figured a little humor right now couldn't hurt anybody.

"Hey, guys! I just thought of something!" he said.

"What is it?" Kristine asked him.

"The Brute's natural name, 'Jiralhanae', you know what that means?"

Kristine, Raymond and Jamie shook their heads and Alex did his best to keep from laughing early.

"Get this: It's a word from the Korean language that means 'stupid aggressive lunatic'!" After saying it, he let out an uproaring laugh.

The other marines couldn't help but laugh with him. Soon, they refocused on the mission.

All seven of them were going to learn very soon that they were riding straight into one of the biggest and most infamous disasters to ever happen in history, well, human history that is.

* * *

**The Brutes' side . . .**

* * *

A single, hairy fist tore its way through a pile of rubble, metal and blood. Soon, a Jiralhanae Chieftain named Lacertosus rose to the surface by sheer force and escaped aforementioned pile of junk and blood. His armor and head crest were scratched and dented, but he didn't care right now.

He looked around, seeing the entire ship in ruins and its whole crew deceased. Seeing what had transpired, the lone Brute cocked his head back, raised his hands to the air and let out a strong, anguish-filled scream that echoed throughout the ship's halls and such. During his fit of agony, he smashed his balled-up fists against the floor, making huge twin dents.

After he finished releasing his pent-up rage, Lacertosus shook off the dizziness he felt from the collision and began searching for anyone who survived the crash besides himself.

Two minutes later, four more Jiralhanaes were found which consisted of a Stalker named Infensus, two Jump Pack Minors and Majors named Volatus and Volactius, and a regular Brute Ultra named Bracktanus(not to be confused with the same Bracktanus who once battled and killed a Sangheili warrior within close proximity of a holy area and was saved from facing capital punishment by the Prophets).

With the other Chieftain Brutes either missing or dead and Lacertosus being the only one of them still remaining, he felt that this automatically made him the current leader of this small band of Brute survivors.

Volatus, the jumper in gold armor, slowly approached Lacertosus and asked if he was alright after he rubbed the side of his head.

"I am still healthy!" he barked, slapping his outstretched hand away in the process.

"Are there more of our bretheren still breathing on this entire ship?" the Chieftain questioned.

"Negative. With the exception of ourselves, every single member of our crew has perished in the impact." Bracktanus reported.

Lacertosus uttered a curse word in his native language and ordered the others to follow him to the armory department.

Along the way, the Brutes peeked out of one of the ship's windows and saw that they were no longer in the deep recesses of space and that they have crash landed on a planet and beyond their position was a city and, judging from its appearance, it was experiencing some kind of trouble due to some of its burning structures. The Brute band knew instantly that it was a human civilization and continued with their destination, a plot of vengeance forming in their overgrown heads.

When they reached the armory, they were stunned to see all of their weapons and gadgets sprawled all over the floor, the same went for some of their battle vehicles, some were even totaled and useless now. The only ones that were still operational were one Type-25 Rapid Assault Vehicles(Brute Choppers) and two Type-52 Infantry Support Vehicles(Brute Prowlers). Before the collision, they had more, including a few areial types. No longer.

"Gather as much firepower as you need. If those wretched Elites and their disgusting human friends are walking around on this same world as us, we shall find and obliterate them once and for all!" Lacertosus said with a mix of anger and pride in his words. The other Brutes felt empowered by that speech.

After they had re-armed themselves and took command of their battle vehicles, they exited their ship and gazed at the distant city. They didn't know how many humans populated the town and they didn't care.

With a weapon in hand, they raised one fist in the night air (their new leader raising his gravity hammer with both hands), shouted, "For Doisac!" altogether and began their drive to the mysterious human city.

Like the UNSC marines and the Covenant Separatists, their time on this world, and century, was going to be one neither side would ever forget.

* * *

**Sorry it took me so long to post more material here. I just finished my other story, which took me half a year to do, and this is all I have for now. Like Thel', whatever color the Elites' and Brutes' armor uniforms are is for you to decide for yourselves. **

**I can't seem to think of any names for the Elites, I'm not good with inventing alien-sounding names. Any suggestions?**

**My apologies for withdrawing the chapter, my reason for doing so was because I forgot to include the Brutes.**

**I came up with the Brutes' names from Latin-based websites after learning about where their names originated. It's not much, but it's all I got.**

**Even though all of the characters are supposed to maintain serious attitudes, I hope you don't mind that I made the Alex character into a bit of a comic relief here. I couldn't resist writing in that joke he tells to his teammates, I looked it up on the Halo Wikia website and got the idea. Some scary/action stories have a comic relief character once in a while, right? Avery Johnson did it all the time, one marine from Halo 1 who said "We're screwed man, we're screwed!", the Hudson guy from the the film "Aliens" who said something similar to that line, Frank West and Chuck Greene from the Deadrising series crack jokes once in a while, a few wisecracks Leon made to Salazar in RE4 (my fav was when he said "Your right hand comes off?") and, even though it's not a horror franchise, Mortal Kombat's Johnny Cage does it too, you get the picture.**

**Lastly, I'm not completely sure if Slipstream/Slipspace jumping is capable of time travel in the Halo world(forward and backward). As I said before, this is my first sci-fi themed story and it was the only thing I could think of to explain how the Halo and Resident Evil characters meet.**

**More HaloHazard chapters coming up.**


	8. The More The Deadlier

**It took me a while to write more, but it's here. Read away.**

* * *

John and Cortana tried to figure out where Leon may have gone as neither of them didn't see where he went during the fight. John's HUD radar wasn't picking up a signal from the rookie cop or from any infected, the latter being a good thing.

Like with the first Licker creature, the sound of a gunshot was heard. They assumed it was Leon and that he must have had a run-in with more of the city's virus carriers.

John shuffled around one corner and barged through a silver iron door that led him into an underground parking lot, he had his assault rifle ready for a confrontation if it came to that.

A few civilian and police vehicles were found parked around. Like before, his radar still picked up no enemy traces, but this time he did find two people standing behind a large, blue armored S.W.A.T. team truck trying to push it. One was Leon while the other was an Asian woman with short black hair, a red dress, black pant leggings, strap shoes, and a watch on her left wrist. A pistol was visible in her left hand, telling John and Cortana that she was the shooter, perhaps from a misunderstanding of Leon being another souless zombie seeking out a living meal.

Leon and the woman were giving it their all to budge the armored vehicle away as it was blocking a hidden spot when they stopped upon hearing the Spartan coming in.

Leon was relieved to see that John survived the fight with the giant stalker while Ada had a look of confusion written on her face.

"You two know each other?" she asked.

Leon answered. "Yeah. He's been helping me out during the craziness all over Raccoon City."

He introduced John to the woman called Ada Wong and explained to the Spartan soldier the short details of his and her situation.

"That's some impressive hardware you're packing, same for that bulky suit of yours." Ada commented in a flirtatious manner. John said nothing in return and neither did Cortana.

Leon eyed the truck again and then asked for John's help in moving it.

The two stood back as the UNSC member placed his gloved hands on the back of the truck and moved it with powerful force without much trouble. The truck hit a wall and stopped and stayed where it now was.

"Thanks for the assist." Ada said to the futuristic Spartan.

_Was this guy a bodybuilding competitor or something? _She thought, impressed by this individual's prowess. She also suspected him of being a government agent, but she put the thought aside for now.

With the heavy vehicle out of the way, the trio entered a door with iron bars on its front.

The moment they entered, John scanned for more virus carriers and came up with positive results, there were two creatures somewhere in the hall.

Like an impatient person, Ada ran ahead without warning.

"Ada, wait!" Leon called to her as she disappeared behind a corner.

John and Leon chased after the woman and saw her open an electronic gate that led to a cellblock holding area. Leon followed her in while John departed from them to deal with the creatures in the neighboring kennel room.

There were two cells. One was empty and the other was occupied by a man laying on one of the cell's seating benches. He was wearing a business suit, red tie, dark red pants and black shoes. He also wore his blond hair in a ponytail style. Leon wondered what crime he could have committed to deserve a spot in here.

Rancous barking and yelping were heard from the kennel room, neither Leon nor Ada minded.

"Is this him?" Leon asked Ada and she confirmed a yes answer.

"Ben Bertolucci, get up now!" Leon commanded harshly, banging one hand against the bars.

Ben opened his eyes and slowly rose up from the bench.

"What do you want? I'm trying to sleep here." he complained.

Leon stood by and observed as Ada and Ben locked eyes with each other.

"Ben, you told the city officials that you knew something about what's been going on around here, didn't you? What did you tell them?" she asked him.

"And just who the heck are you?" Ben asked her.

"I'm trying to find my boyfriend, his name's John Clemens." Ada said. Hearing the first name of Ada's missing significant other reminded Leon of the Spartan commando.

Ada continued. "He was working for a branch office of Umbrella, based in Chicago, when he suddenly disappeared about six months ago. I heard a rumor that he's here somewhere in the city."

Ben rolled his eyes. "Well, I don't know anything about that and even if I did, why would I tell you?" He sneered and turned his back to them. He was acting like a rebellious teenager.

Frustrated from Ben's defiant attitude, Leon glared at the cell door's locking mechanism.

"That's it! Where's the key to this cell?" he demanded.

Ben dug into his pants pocket and took out a single, silver key attached to a small chain.

"I have it right here, officer." he said while dangling the keychain on his index finger in front of Leon, probably to annoy him for amusement. "But no way am I leaving this cell. You see, those zombies aren't the only things crawling around out there."

Leon was about to sarcastically say, "Yeah, I noticed." when a loud growl echoed throughout the station, startling them.

"What was that?" Leon had a chilling feeling it was not the enemy that fought with John, it sounded bigger and more ferocious.

"Like I said, I'm not leaving this cell. Now, get out of here before you lead it right to me." he said with a bit of fear in his voice.

"Hey, we're not going anywhere! I'm the only cop left alive in this building!" Leon replied.

"What?"

"If you want to live, then you're going to have to come with us." Leon offered.

"Do you even know how to escape the city? There's a kennel in the back of the building. Inside the kennel is a manhole that leads to a sewer entrance, it won't be easy though." Ben told them.

Leon wanted to convince Ben to join them again, but Ada recommended that they did what Ben requested so they let the incarcerated reporter be and headed for the kennel room.

When they came in, they found two dead zombie dogs, both recently killed by the tough-as-nails Spartan. One of the deceased animals had been impaled on its head and the other was missing its own along with one of its front legs which now lay near one of the cells.

_Holy crap! _Ada thought. She had never seen anything like this ever. She figured this guy could be useful after all.

Up ahead on the right side of the first cell was a sealed sewer manhole just as Ben had said. Next to it was a crowbar, a dry water bowl, bags of dog food and other useless junk.

John crouched down, yanked the sewer lid off without the use of the crowbar and slid it away. Even though the crowbar was no longer needed, Ada took it anyway to use as a blunt weapon and they climbed down the sewer ladder one at a time.

Filthy water covered their feet and ankles and the stench was so overwhelming, it made Leon want to vomit. It was twice as foul as the undead. Good thing John was wearing his helmet while Cortana was, well, an A.I.

Nevertheless, they advanced, doing their best to brave the murky waters contaminated with age-old piss, shit and other unmentionables.

A random hissing sound drew their attention. The group stood still and carefully looked around for the new unknown threat.

Ada noticed a couple of shadows lurking on the ceiling. From the look of it, the shadowy figures were enormous and had multiple limbs attached to their bodies. She knew what the shadows represented and got a spine-tingling chill just from guessing correctly. John switched his helmet to night vision and clearly discovered the oncoming targets with ease. What was present with them was no Licker as suspected, but to him, he dealt with worse enemies and situations.

Ada and Leon made a grab for their weapons again, only Leon had his shotgun this time while Ada only had her pistol.

The hidden monstrosities jumped down from the ceiling and landed on the water near a small light and revealed themselves to the survivors. What they were looking at were two giant tarantula spiders, the T-Virus had increased their physical sizes to that of a car. The spiders raised their two front legs in the air like that of a horse about to kick and hissed at them, revealing their huge, hidious venomous fangs.

Without hesitation, Leon fired his shotgun at the mutated arachnid on the right, knocking it backward. Ada took five shots at the spider on the left with her gun while it was distracted. Both creatures bled a mixture of green and red blood and screeched in pain. The one shot by Leon hurled itself back on its legs and began crawling at its attackers at high speed, orange colored venom dripping from its fangs.

John quickly grabbed his machete and allowed the overgrown arachnid to run right into it. After the spider was mortally wounded, he kicked it off, withdrew his own shotgun with one hand, took aim at its head and pulled the trigger. Blood, hair and other goop splattered on the walls, into the dirty water, on the second spider and on his armor. Ada and Leon were unaffected by the goo and blood due to them taking cover behind him during the assault.

"Ew!" Cortana complained silently. The remaining tarantula attacked and the three of them ended its infected life. No more spiders or other threats emerged after that and they proceeded until they found a stairway that lead them out of the dirty sewer and back above ground.

The group found a small resting point on their right and they welcomed themselves right in.

Ada and Leon dropped their weapons and plopped down to take a breather and the UNSC Spartan calmly put his shotgun back and remained standing.

"I never want to see another spider again if we survive this!" Leon said shakily. He found a pile of dry washcloths and used them to wipe the sewage grime from his feet.

"So much for using the old "shoe-squishing" technique on them." Ada joked lightly as Leon handed her a cloth and she did the same as him.

John inspected the large box chest and found nothing inside.

Five minutes have passed and they declared their break over.

They left the safe room and turned to another door with a sign painted on the wall next to it that read "Septic Pool". On their right was a closed metal storage door and a ventilation shaft above.

Ada stopped and looked at the shaft. She was curious to see what was beyond it other than more monsters.

Leon interrupted her thoughts to tell her something important.

"I just remembered, I don't think we've introduced ourselves yet. My name's Leon Kennedy, I'm with the R.P.D. and this here is John and Cortana. I don't know what faction they're from, but it doesn't matter right now."

Before Ada could ask Leon of why he mentioned a non-present third party member, John removed Cortana's chip from his helmet and revealed her holographic form and she gave her introduction like she did when she and John first met Claire and Leon.

Surprised from seeing Cortana's form, Ada smiled quietly and turned back to the shaft. John put Cortana back in place.

"It's a dead end." Leon said while shaking his head in disappointment.

"You think you can get upstairs through that shaft?" Ada asked Leon.

Leon shrugged his shoulders.

An idea formed in her mind. She was going to ask one of the two men to give her a boost up the shaft when John stepped forward to the locked entrance.

"Allow me." John said.

Ada's impression of John being mute the whole time vanished upon hearing him speak for the first time. She also misinterpreted his request as a boost from them and thought he was crazy considering his bulky size.

Leon, however, thought otherwise and told Ada to step aside.

John approached the metal gate and ripped the entire thing open without so much as breaking a sweat.

As with the armored truck in the garage, Ada was amazed by the Spartan's feat and not in an attraction type of way.

Another door was discovered beyond their position. John offered to investigate further alone and asked the two survivors to wait for him back in the safe room just in case. They accepted and returned to said room and John opened the door and found himself outside of the station and around a cess pool area.

More hungry zombies and one zombie dog saw him and the zombies stumbled lazily toward him while the canine just dashed for him.

The dog leaped for John and he sidestepped to the left and the undead animal yelped as it collided face first into the fence behind the super soldier.

Before it got the chance to shake off its disorientation and attack again, John fatally crushed its head and neck area with the stomp of his right foot.

As for the zombies, they were stabbed and sliced to death like always. The armored soldier's radar showed no more enemies and he spread out to cover the rest of the area.

John walked across the bridge and took the door on his left.

What he found was a sewage disposal room. A working lever stood near the edge of the pit, it was meant for filling and draining the room's water supply. Three giant stairs led to a pit filled with three crate boxes. On the opposite side of where he stood was a cabinet displaying pill and liquid bottles and laying next to the useless items was a precinct key with a stock head shaped like a cloverleaf club.

"Leon or Ada might need that key in case we separate from them again." Cortana said.

The Spartan looked at the boxes below then at the electronic lever and figured out what role both played if used. The boxes were meant to be stacked in a line and when the lever was activated, water would flow into the pit and raise them up to form a crossing bridge.

Thanks to his trusty jet pack, John had no use for the crate bridge and hovered over to the other side. He grabbed the key, hovered back and left the room.

As he journeyed back, he remembered the other place he didn't search.

A closer look revealed a small-sized elevator that lead down a shaft.

More useless junk was discovered when he made it down. On his left was a generator box that supplied power to the elevator, two empty silver gasoline containers and a box of shotgun shells which he scooped up.

In front of him was a dead end where a few steel pipes layed against the corner and another shaft made from a hole in a small fence above a wall. No undead were detected here and John and Cortana had no purpose here except leaving.

Rather than using the elevator again, John just hovered back up to the surface and made it back to the safe room where Ada Wong and Leon Kennedy were found sitting down and waiting for him.

"Did you come across anything good?" Leon asked as he and Ada stood up.

John nodded and handed over the box of shotgun shells and the key. Due to his excess cargo, Leon couldn't find a place anywhere on him to store the two gifts. Leon took one shotgun shell from the box and stuffed it in his gun. Ada decided to hold on to both items for him and they were given to her.

Without nothing else to do here, they left the safe room and entered the one next to the now-torn metal gate.

It appeared to be some kind of generator room with a small metal bridge in the middle.

When they reached the other side, there was a metal door. The problem was that this door was another electronic type and there was no key to the electric fuse box on its right.

As they were about to figure out how to unlock the door, with John standing by should they fail to find an answer, a faint bloodcurdling scream echoed not too far away.

"That sounded like Ben!" said Leon.

Forgetting about the door, the trio began to hurry back to the cell block area as fast as possible.

By the time they reached the place, they found the reporter sitting in a slumped position outside of his cell. Blood dripped from his mouth and he held his hand across his chest as if he was about to endure a heart attack. An enlarged hole was visible on the ceiling of his cell, someone or something had broken into his cell.

"Ben!" Leon cried out and he and Ada kneeled next to him. John stepped in the cell and scanned around with his radar and found no traces of Ben's assailant. He had a feeling none of the zombies or other monsters were responsible for Ben's current condition, not even the stalker. He guessed it was that creature Ben spoke about, the one that roared.

"Can you still hear me?" the cop questioned. Ben was panting really hard, his eyes wide with fear.

"Come on, answer!" Leon begged.

Ben turned his shocked gaze to the policeman and opened his bloodstained mouth to speak.

"Damn, I don't believe this!" he said in an irritated manner. "I almost got the story!"

He coughed, wiped blood away from his mouth, laughed in a maniacal fashion and continued speaking.

"Bitter irony, the chief of police, co-conspirator." Leon already had a guess of what he was talking about: Brian Irons.

He handed a few sheets of stapled papers to them. Leon took the papers and set them aside for later.

"Get . . .that . . .scum! Make . . .him . . .pay!" Ben demanded, his voice straining with every word.

"Hang in there, Ben!" Leon urged him and helped him to his feet.

Then suddenly, he felt a sharp pain inside his body, mostly near his chest region.

"My. . .chest . . .it's . . .burning!" Ben cried and clutched at his chest even harder.

"Ben? What's wrong with you?" Ada asked. Out of instinct, both she and Leon trained their guns on the dying man, thinking he was going to mutate into a zombie or worse.

"Hurts . . .so much . . .!" Ben shouted as he struggled to breathe. His mind was spinning out of control, he lost focus of everything around him and stumbled everywhere like he couldn't see where he was going or if he was heavily intoxicated.

The pain was so unbearable, he was going to ask the survivors to put him out of his horrendous misery when he was split open from the shoulder and chest area. A tiny living organism emerged from his body and escaped and Ben plopped to the floor dead in an instant.

"Good god, what was that?" said Ada. As Leon tried to gather his thoughts from seeing Ben's tragic death, Ada made a 180 degree spin and made a dash for the exit.

"Where are you going, Ada?" Leon asked her.

Ada stopped for a moment to answer. "To the chemical plant. I have a feeling that's where I'll find who I'm looking for. I'll catch up with you later." With that said, she placed the shotgun ammo box on the ground, reopened the gate and was gone.

Leon called out to her, but it was useless. He took out his radio and pressed the talk button.

"Do you read me, Claire?" he said into it.

"I hear you, Leon." said Claire.

"We now have access to the back of the parking lot. John and I are getting out of here and heading to the sewer. Can you meet us there?"

"I'm on my way."

"By the way, is Thel 'Vadam still with you?" he asked.

"Yes, he is. Why?"

"Just checking. Over and out." he said and ended the transmission.

Before leaving, he read the papers Ben gave him prior to his death.

This is what they said:

**Mail to the Chief.**

**To: Mr. Brian Irons, Chief of the Raccoon City Police Department.**

**_We have lost the mansion lab facility due to the actions of the renegade operative, Albert Wesker._**

**_Fortunately, his interference will have no lasting effects upon our continued virus research._**

**_Our only present concern is the presence of the remaining S.T.A.R.S. members: Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Barry Burton, Rebecca Chambers and Brad Vickers._**

**_If it comes to light that the S.T.A.R.S. have any evidence to the activities of our research, dispose of them in such a manner that would appear to be purely accidental._**

**_Continue to monitor their progress and make certain their knowledge does not go public._**

**_Annette will continue to be your contact throughout this affair._**

**_-William Birkin_**

**To: Mr. Brian Irons, Chief of the Raccoon City Police Department.**

_**I have deposited the amount of U.S. $10,000 to the account for your services this term as per agreement.**_

_**The development of the G-Virus, scheduled to replace the T-Virus, is near completion. Once completed, I am certain that I will be appointed to be a member of the executive board for Umbrella Inc.**_

_**It is imperative that we proceed with extreme caution. Redfield and the remaining S.T.A.R.S. members are still attempting to uncover information on the project.**_

_**Continue to monitor their activities and block all attempts to investigate the underground research facilities.**_

_**-William Birkin**_

**To: Mr. Brian Irons, Chief of the Raccoon City Police Department.**

_**We have a problem. I have received information informing me that Umbrella HQ has sent spies to recover my research on the G-Virus. There are an unknown number of agents involved. They must not be allowed to take this project away from me as it represents my entire life's work.**_

**_Search the city thoroughly for any suspicious persons. Detain any such individuals by whatever means deemed necessary and contact me immediately through Annette. _****_With these precautions, any possible threat should be eliminated._**

**_I refuse to allow anyone to steal my work on the G-Virus. _**

**_Not even Umbrella . . ._**

**_-William Birkin_**

The letters concluded there and Leon put them away in case his former boss was still alive. He wanted to ensure that Brian Irons gets the justice he deserves for his underground activities when this zombie crisis was over with, assuming he was still within Raccoon City and was alive and unmutated of course, and those letters were the only leverage he now had against him. The thought of Irons working for the company responsible for this whole zombie apocalypse fueled his hate for that man even more now. Then a thought hit him, he had no idea what Irons looked like so seeking him out was going to be hard.

With Ben now terminated, they left the cellblock to find Ada Wong, Claire Redfield, Thel 'Vadam and that young girl and get the hell out of this city for good. Before doing so, a backpack was found in Ben's cell under his bed, there was nothing in it besides a note inside that said,

_**"Dear Irons: If you're reading this, I have eight words for you . . . Kiss my ass you fat sack of crap! ~Anonymous". **_

Since Ben was no longer living, Leon felt he needed to take the bag to store his belongings. He looked at Ben's corpse and whispered an apology to him for taking the pack and the duo left the holding block.

* * *

**Claire Redfield's side . . .**

* * *

Claire and her alien ally were back in the main hall. Without guessing, they took the door on the right of the station's entrance.

More zombies were found, but like before, they were already dead. It was obvious to them that a certain police officer and Spartan commando had already passed by here.

They took the double doors painted blue and were right back in the place they used to hide from the hulking giant.

They came upon a door that required the Heart Key Claire found in Irons' private quarters and she decided to put it to use rather than have Thel 'Vadam break it down, she didn't want to give the wrong impression of being lazy to open doors.

The door was unlocked, the key was discarded and they went in. The two went down a flight of stairs to a lower portion of the station and discovered more dead infected dogs and a gaping hole on one of the walls, they wondered what mess John and Leon could have possibly handled down here other than the zombie dogs since none of them could make a wall dent that enormous.

They entered a room with a yellow sign above while avoiding the room next door that said "Autopsy Room" because, at a time like this, Claire felt that a place like that was more like a lounge room for zombies.

Across from them was a reserve power control box panel mounted to a wall. Claire browsed at its switches and learned that it was to be operated with great care and that using all of its power at once can cause a short curcuit and eliminate the power supply. Claire didn't know if that meant just the power in that very room or worse, the entire city. So she left it alone and the two did some quick exploring only to wind up walking in a circle leading to the entrance and left the generator room.

A pair of iron double doors led the duo outside where they came across three more undead dogs. An open manhole was seen behind the dogs and Claire was told to escape while Thel stayed put to deal with the virus animals.

Claire darted across the area, barely dodging one dog that almost had her and jumped down the manhole without using the ladder and was now in a hidden passage free of monsters. She heard the sounds of barking, plasma slicing and high-pitched yelping from up above.

She entered a small safe room with another large storage container and when she opened it for inspection, she discovered an unexpected surprise. Entombed in the chest was none other than Sherry Birkin. Claire assumed she was hiding from the mutant dogs.

Claire was so relieved to see her alive and well amid the chaos going on.

"Sherry, I've been looking everywhere for you. I was so worried." she said smoothingly.

She helped the young girl out of the box.

"We've got to leave now, ok? If we stay here, that monster will find us. Let's go." she said to her.

"No, I won't." Sherry said.

Claire was taken aback by the girl's response and wondered if she did or said something to deserve her answer.

"What's wrong? Don't you trust me?" she asked her.

"It's not that, Claire." she said. Claire mentally breathed a sigh of relief upon knowing Sherry wasn't mad at her or mad at all. "It's because of my dad, I heard him call my name! He must've been attacked by the monsters, I have to help him!".

With that said, she darted out the door then toward a wall with a small hole on its fence, she ran up a mini ramp, which collapsed after she used it, and climbed up and was over the other side through the fence opening.

"Wait, Sherry! Don't go alone!" Claire said, but it was no use. The girl was already across and was now unable to return to Claire.

The size of the wall and fence hole made it inaccessible for Claire to follow the child. An electronic humming noise was heard from beyond the wall and Claire figured that she was using something for transportation.

Just then, she heard Thel 'Vadam jump down from the surface and found her.

"I found Sherry, but she escaped over that wall behind me and now she's gone and I can't reach the other side. Help me out, please."

He agreed and ruptured his way through the wall. For protective reasons, he instructed Claire to wait here and was off to search for the human child on his own.

Sherry was already nowhere to be found. His surroundings were of the same location John was at a few minutes ago.

His helmet radar sensed Sherry's presence above ground and because the elevator was out of reach where he stood, he made his way upward via jetpack.

During mid-flight, he heard running footsteps clatter across a metal walkway and a door opening and closing. She was very close.

Thel found several dead zombie and dog bodies on the ground, a sign that his war partner had made his mark here.

By then, Sherry's signal wasn't the only one on his radar, for he turned to the familiar sound of the zombies rising up as more Crimson zombies. One of them spit an acidic-looking chemical on him and reflected off his armor shields. He rolled his eyes in annoyance and finished them with his energy sword and killed the final Crimson zombie by removing its head with one hand.

After achieving his small victory, Thel heard a door open and along with that a frightening gasp. He looked up from the body and found Sherry Birkin staring at both him and the zombie head in his hand. At first, she mistaked him for another virus creature or until she remembered seeing him with Claire back at the art gallery.

"Are-are you with Claire?" she asked him, her voice quivering a bit. She was always ordered by her parents to never converse with unfamiliar people when she was younger, as all children are often told, but given this case, as she had with the college biker, she forgot it.

Thel nodded and dropped the head after realizing he held it. "She is waiting for you, young one."

Feeling bad for running out on Claire(or at least that's what she felt it was), Sherry agreed to follow the alien being back. Now that she knew he was a friend of Claire's, her fear of him dissolved slowly.

They found Claire Redfield sitting inside the room and she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Sherry safe and sound.

"Sherry! Did you find your dad?"

"No, I couldn't find him." she said sadly.

Claire felt sympathy for her. She hoped her parents were alive and looking for her just like she was with them and her brother with her. "It's better if you stay with us, okay? We'll keep you safe from the monsters." she said.

Sherry was about to counter by implying that she can handle herself, but agreed to her terms.

As they were leaving, Claire's radio beeped and she answered it.

"Do you read me, Claire?" It was Leon Kennedy.

"I read you." she said.

"We now have access to the back of the parking lot. John and I are getting out of here and heading to the sewer. Can you meet us there?"

"I'm on my way."

"By the way, is Thel 'Vadam still with you?"

"Yes, he is. Why?"

"Just wondering, over and out." The transmission ended and Claire put the radio away.

"Who was that and who's John and Thel 'Vadam?" Sherry asked her.

"That was a friend of mine, a police officer named Leon. Thel 'Vadam is this person's name and John is Thel's friend who's helping Leon right now. We're going to go find them and escape the city together." Claire explained.

Sherry understood and they ventured back up to the city surface together.

When they climbed back to where the dogs were, something else leaped from out of nowhere and almost tagged Sherry. With fast reflexes, Claire yanked her away from the attacker's path in time. Thel backhanded the side of the beast's face, grabbed it by the shoulders and threw it aside like a bag of garbage. The creature slammed into a brick wall and roared at the Sangheili in rage.

This new enemy happened to be a humanoid, reptilian-like creature with large claws on its hands and feet, yellow eyes and scaly skin with a slight muscular build, it moved and acted like some kind of hunter.

Terrified, Sherry clung onto Claire tightly and Claire held her with one hand and raised her handgun with the other and fired two shots at the monster, hitting it in the right arm and abdomen.

Bleeding but still standing, the reptile beast foolishly charged at the group. The alien intervened by shoving it back with a strong boot kick to its exposed chest when it raised its arms and claws. He withdrew his plasma rifle and fired three shots at the target, one touched its left leg and it was forced to kneel over as the plasma energy ate away at its scaly flesh. It screeched and howled from the withering, burning pain. Thel activated his sword and plunged the blades right in and through its head.

With that out of the way, they went back into the station. Sherry was amazed yet frightened by the way Claire's large friend handled the monster.

A room was found that said "Arms Storage" and on the left side was an electronic key card scanner. They couldn't get in without one so, as usual, Thel forced his way in and they went inside.

The storage facility was loaded with weapons and other goodies such as ammunition for handguns, shotguns, assault rifles, baton sticks and a few bullet resisting vests and riot shields although many of them were broken. In front of them were lockers, some open, some closed. Claire approached one and opened it. What she found in the locker was a side pack and a submachine gun with three ammo clips next to it that were filled with 25 bullets each. In need of more room to store her items, Claire equipped herself with the pack and fit as much of her remaining handgun ammo clips into it as she can and snagged the submachine gun and its clips.

She opened it and found a full clip already inside, totaling up of about 100 bullets for that weapon.

When she glanced back at Sherry, she realized that she was the only one without something to defend herself with. Unable to use firearms on her own, Sherry was told to arm herself with one of the police nightsticks. Thel 'Vadam was uninterested in anything from the room since he was fine with what he already had.

Sherry grabbed a nightstick and took a few practice swings with her new weapon, it was a bit heavy for her so she had to use both hands to grip and attack with it. Killing the creatures roaming around Raccoon City was going to be a challenge for her because, except for insects and bacteria, she had never brought herself to kill before. It was similar to murdering a real person or regular animal to her.

"Ready?" Claire asked Sherry. She nodded and the three survivors exited the weapons room.

* * *

**The FOREVER crew's entry into the city of death . .** .

* * *

The FOREVER ship survivors had finally arrived in the city. They stopped in the middle of a four way intersection and descended from their vehicles to observe their new surroundings.

"Good grief, it's even worse up close." Jamie said and she was right. The entire city was filled with destroyed buildings and vehicles, sheets of paper floated in the damp air and dead bodies sprawled all over the streets and sidewalks. Like before, the Brutes and/or other members of the Covenant Loyalist faction were suspected of bringing about the chaotic scene. It was like a scene out of an apocalypse-themed movie or novel.

What confused them more was the fact that everything looked almost nothing like any civilization they've ever been too. All of it resembled Earth in the form of the 20th or 21st century. They wondered if this was some kind of nostalgia-themed town, they even questioned in their minds if this entire planet was Earth itself. They would discover that answer very soon.

"Alright team. Spread out and search for survivors and radio your status if you do. Remember, if any Covenant Loyalists show up, they are to be either captured or eliminated on the spot." Raymond ordered. He didn't uphold the rank of a leader, but since they were the last of their crew, he felt someone had to do it.

Raymond, Jamie and the two Spec-Ops Elites, Kh'rue 'Naskar and E'mal 'Gelam, took one path and Alex, Kristine and the Ultra, Ha'mak 'Marukt, followed another.

* * *

**Side 1. . .**

* * *

Jamie had her silenced M7 submachine guns out, Raymond held his M90 CAWS shotgun and Kh'rue and E'mal were armed with Covenant carbine rifles.

The touring group's first stop was a building with a sign on top and on its grassy lawn that read "Raccoon City Junior School". On their right was a crashed van that said "K-9 Unit" on its side, the van's backdoors were open and inside were cages that appeared to have been broken through from the inside. The two marines wondered what reason the city authorites would have in bringing dogs here and the Elites had no clue what dogs were for now. They entered the school's double doors and inside was just like the rest of the city, trashed and void of anyone besides them, and of any electricity.

The team navigated themselves through the educational center's darkened hallways with their rifle flashlights and helmet night vision. Classrooms were inspected and nothing came up but more messes such as turned-over desks, books, backpacks, spilt pens, pencils and scratched chalkboards with their erasers on the floor.

Raymond was about to issue another separate search order when the helmets of the two aliens beeped and began picking up signals, signals they assumed were more survivors hiding somewhere in the building.

"We are picking up signs of life around here." E'mal said and the humans looked at him in wonder.

"Follow us." he said and off they went.

Their trail led them into what looked like a library. Rows upon rows of books were seen everywhere, it was a goldmine for book enthusiasts. There was little lighting in the library.

Raymond quietly informed the team to stick together and they cautiously ventured in the library as they believed Brutes were hiding out in here.

The sound of a few books falling made the team enter a combat-ready stance. What they discovered in that very place was a group of seven people made up of four children dressed in school uniforms and three men and a woman, the woman dressed in librarian clothing and the men donning security guard clothing. It seems they were not alone after all.

The team lowered their weapons and Raymond went to offer any assistance to them, but when he got with close priximity of the locals, he and his teammates noticed that their appearences were not too kindly. Both the staff and the students had their mouths hanging open and revealed horrible, looking teeth, dripping saliva mixed with bloodstains and some had peculiar bits of meat chunks stuck on their teeth. Their clothes were torn and tattered, the skin on their bodies was peeling like rotting fruit, their eyes were absent of pupils and iris and they smelled horrible like decaying meat.

One of the security guards approached the space marine and not only did he grab at him, he also attempted to bite him in a violent manner as well.

Out of instinct, Raymond shoved the sickly-looking man away with the side of his gun, forcing the school employee to stumble, fall and knock down the others. All of them got up and began to slowly walk toward the crew with their arms and hands raised as if they wanted a hug.

Except for the Sangheili duo, Jamie and Raymond trained their weapons on the school guard and ordered him to freeze and place his hands on his head, but their command was ignored. In fact, none of the others reacted to the order or to the seriousness in their voices, not even the children.

They all moaned an unpleasant moan and slowly limped toward the crew members. Something was very wrong with them, it was as if they were hit hard by some sickening disease and it was making them delusional.

"Listen, we don't want to hurt anybody, just tell us what's going on here and we can help you out!" Jamie said in an futile attempt to reason with the locals. They ignored her and the guard and the other adults tried to bite them again. Without thinking, Raymond squeezed the trigger and shot and killed them, leaving only the children to remain.

Jamie was about to comment on why her comrade had just used deadly force, forgetting that he himself allowed it if nescessary, when she and the others noticed that the diseased children in front of them had not reacted upon the death of one of their own and resumed their ghoulish movements.

The children got close to Jamie and repeated what the adults did and she involuntarily pushed them away and, stepping back, she couldn't decide whether or not to engage them. Despite their grizzly acts of hostility, she and Raymond mentally struggled over the horrible thought of having to either arrest the children or inflict lethal force on them, they were both taught to attack when an enemy made the first move without hesitation, but how could they do that to these little kids? What they didn't know was that these "innocent children" and the dead employees, were literally not themselves. They were all, in fact, zombies.

The Elites weren't mind readers, but they felt what Raymond and Jamie felt. Due to their people's alliance with the human race since the final days of the Human-Covenant War, they couldn't bring themselves to battle any of them, they've heard of the human space terrorists known as Insurrectionists or "Innies" as they were described for short, but that was completely different.

So instead of gunning the zombie kids down, the foursome simply decided to exit the library. They closed the doors and rattled their brains to figure out the situation at hand.

"What the hell was that?" Raymond said.

"I don't know." said Jamie. They jumped and turned when the children started banging on the doors and moaning that creepy moan. This was not exactly what they faced in marine training.

"This is horrible! It's like we're in hell or something!" Jamie stated.

"Oh, it's real alright, although I can't imagine hell being much worse!" said Raymond.

"Over there!" Kh'rue said and the group looked and spotted more zombies. Three of them had dark red coloring on their skin with piercing yellow eyes and extended claws on where their fingernails should be. These red zombies hissed and, unlike the rest, they dashed at them, forcing them to fight back, even the Elites took part in the fighting amid how they felt.

After gunning down the crowd and finding nobody else within the school other than more zombies, they had no choice but to leave the school grounds.

"I hope the others are doing better than us." Raymond said on the way out.

Just then, one of their radios beeped and Jamie answered it. Raymond and the Sangheilis kept watch for zombies while she was busy.

"This is Jamie. What's your status, over?" she said, knowing full well it was their other squadmates. Who else could it have been?

"They're everywhere!" screamed Alex, causing Jamie to jump back and gasp from the sudden volume in his voice.

"Calm down, Alex. What's your situation right now?" she asked him.

"I'm looking at large waves of hostiles coming at us and they sure as hell ain't Covenant Loyalists!"

"What are you talking about?" Jamie's asked, she had a pretty good guess Alex and his company were having a run-in with what they just escaped from in this very school.

"There's survivors here who've gone totally mad, they see us as freaking appetizers or something! There was another survivor asking for help just a minute ago, but the poor bastard was murdered by these psychopaths and is now being eaten by them! Should we engage them or retreat?"

None of them could believe what they were hearing. More survivors were found and while that should be considered a good thing, said survivors were trying to actually _eat_ their comrades, like cannibals. It was there that they figured out why those people in the library were acting dangerous in the first place, they wanted to devour Jamie, Raymond and possibly the two Sangheili warriors. The question was: why?

Getting back to the matter at hand, the armorer reminded them that they were told to defend themselves at all costs, including killing the zombies (whom were still mistaked for crazed human survivors) if that's what it meant to stay alive.

"Engage them if you must and rendezvous at our starting point!" she said.

The moment that was said, gunshots and stabbing sounds were heard over the line along with the same zombie moans. The four were sickened by the sounds of the battle, but they were taught numerous times in their own respective militaries that the will to survive sometimes meant taking extreme measures.

Kristine's voice took over for Alex, the background had more gunfire groaning. "Roger that, over and out!" Then the line went blank.

Now they were afraid that this town have more to it than just the destruction.

"Let's go!" Raymond said and they left the school through the same way they entered.

* * *

**Side 2. . .**

* * *

Alex Berry, Kristine Harris and Ha'mak Skarukt walked down a street and noticed an alleyway behind a bar and grill restaurant that had toppled trash containers and other junk and walls smeared with blood. It was a sure sign for danger ahead and the three carefully advanced through the alleyway hoping there might be survivors dwelling within the area. Due to the encasing darkness, Kristine and Alex had to resort to using the flashlights built in their guns and Ha'mak switched to night vision mode in his helmet.

The two marines had their MA5 assault rifles ready and the Elite had a Needler gun in his left hand, he would've had his second Needler, but he decided to reserve his free hand for his energy sword or dagger if needed.

"Hello? Anyone there?" Alex said out loud.

There was no response.

"Don't be afraid, we're friendly! We're here to help!" Kristine said and, like her partner, she got no reply from anyone either.

_Where is everybody? _she thought.

A rat squeaked and scurried out from under a garbage disposal, scaring them for split second.

Just as they came to a dead end and were about to head back, they heard a close moan and instinctively aimed their weapons and light beams at its direction.

They found a woman among them. She had short, blue shorts, sneakers, a purple sweater with a skull and crossbones design on it's front and a mohawk hairdo. Aside from that, her appearence was very nerve-wrecking and she looked to be in bad condition. The flesh on her entire face and body was gray in color and grotesque peeled parts of her skin were present, her eyes were without iris and pupils and her mouth dripped with saliva and a light greenish substance that sure didn't look like vomit.

Like with their teammates, they too had no idea that this unnamed individual was a zombie. She was approaching the team in a slow and undignified manner as if she were drunk or high on a drug substance.

Kristine lowered her weapon and questioned the "survivor" on what happened to her, Alex kept his rifle flashlight on them.

The zombified woman limped, moaned a ghostly wail and extended her arms and hands out to them while still walking her walk.

At first, Kristine and Alex at first thought this victim was suffering from leprosy or another skin disease somewhat similar to it.

As Kristine was about to repeat her question, the diseased creature, when she inched closer to Kristine, lunged at the military electrician and opened its mouth to hiss and clamp her teeth on her.

"Hey, what the hell?" she barked and punched the deranged foe in the face. She recovered quickly and shuffled toward the three again.

Sensing a possible situation coming up, Alex and Kristine trained their weapons at the zombie and ordered the infected civilian to stop moving.

The zombie defied the command.

"Halt now or we will open fire upon you! We mean it!" they said and, again, their cease-and-desist order went ignored.

Even though the virus carrier was unarmed, she was asking to be shot.

Like his Sangheili teammates, Ha'mak objected to combating the ill human female and wanted to settle the confrontation without lethal means even though if he was going to be stuck in this town, he was going to have to kill at some point.

The female zombie arched her head back and spit out something besides saliva at them. They quickly ducked or sidestepped away and the substance missed them and splattered the fence behind them. When that happened, the Elite and marines noticed that the zombie's saliva was melting part of the fence like an acidic chemical, puzzling the three even more for they all knew no person can do that.

When the undead woman was about to attack again, Kristine had no choice but to fire off a shot which she did on the local's left arm.

The zombie's arm began to bleed from the wound, but carried on as if the bullet didn't strike.

The three raised eyebrows at what just happened. The virus carrier prepared to release a second dose of saliva acid, but Kristine prevented that by shooting the creature again, this time in the forehead, killing her instantly. Like Jamie, she too felt sick inside after killing the infected individual.

"We offer to help her out and the bitch goes cuckoo bananas on us! What's up with that?" Alex stated. His two partners were just as baffled by this incident as he was.

"I think we should-" Kristine began to say when more moans and shuffling footsteps caught their attention and when they turned, the alley was beginning to fill up with more people who had all had the same physical features on their bodies and clothing as the previous zombie had. One of them even carried a severed human hand in its mouth and gnawed on it like a pet's chew toy.

Something was surely not right in this city.

Unable to make out words for the dreadful scene unfolding before them, the group led themselves right through the invading crowd without killing anyone and were back onto the open streets where they came upon another survivor from across from their position, this one was a man dressed like a fast food employee and looked and acted like a normal person to them save for the injury on his right thigh causing him to limp but not like the zombies. The civilian's injured leg was bleeding and a chunk of skin from the limb appeared to be missing.

"Hey! Over here! Please help me!" he cried out and as he started to make his way toward the team, he tripped over the sidewalk he stood on and was followed by more virus carriers who towered over the unlucky screaming man and killed him. To the marines' and Elite's own shock, those same creatures began feasting on his corpse. It was sickening to the UNSC crew.

More zombies dragged themselves over to the troopers and alien while the feeding ones ignored them.

Not knowing what to do then and there, Alex quickly whipped out his radio transmitter and switched it on.

Seconds later, Jamie Hunt's voice was heard. "This is Jamie, what's your status, over?" said Jamie.

"They're everywhere!" Alex screamed frantically.

"Calm down, Alex! What's going on?"

"I'm looking at large waves of hostiles coming in from all directions and they sure as hell ain't Covenant Loyalists!"

"What are you talking about?"

"There's survivors here who've gone totally mad, they see us as freaking appetizers or something! There was a normal survivor asking for help just a minute ago, but the poor bastard was murdered by these psychopaths and is now being eaten! Should we engage them or retreat?"

"Engage them if you must and rendezvous at our starting point!"

Kristine shot and killed two approaching zombies while knifing a third in the neck with her combat knife and snagged Alex's radio so he can have a shot at the cannibalistic enemies.

"Roger that! Over and out!" she said and switched the radio off and gave it back to Alex.

Mentally apologizing to the virus zombies, Ha'mak raised his Needler and opened fire on them. The pinkish needles embedded themselves on the undead and killed them when they burst.

To Ha'mak, he felt he had violated his people's alliance with humankind. As with their bretheren and Raymond and Jamie, little did he nor his human partners here know that his opponents were none other than the walking dead.

One got close to him and spit its acid at him. His armor and energy shields protected him from harm and so he gave the virus carrier a swift end by activating his right hand's energy dagger and jabbing it into the zombie's skull as fast and hard as possible.

After killing their aggressors, the team took a breather, reloaded and began running back immediately.

Sometime afterward, the seven members were reunited.

"There's some . . . crazy-ass shit . . . going on . . . around this place!" Alex said while panting from all that running.

"You told us, remember? We had our share of that, ourselves!" said Raymond.

The group began swapping stories on what happened with each other and after they finished conversing, a growling and loud exhaling noise made them turn to where it came from.

What the humans and aliens were staring at now were five dogs and four Lickers, all bearing appearances quite similar to the zombies and they were twice as hidious, especially the Lickers with their brains exposed on top of their heads.

All seven crew members prepared for more combat.

The infected dogs each howled a bloodcurdling howl while the Lickers made that creepy breathing sound of theirs and charged at their targets, their vicious-looking jaws showing their stained teeth.

The marines shot at the incoming foes, killing the dogs and one Licker, the other monsters were just as fast as the mutant canines and thus were hard to hit. One of them wrapped its long tongue around Jamie's right arm and, thanks to its immense strength, she fell and dropped her guns during the struggle. Thinking quickly, she unsheathed her knife and vigorously sliced off the appendage and while the Licker was pre-occupied with its new injury, Jamie quickly scooped up her weapons and shot at the creature's exposed brain and killed it.

Kh'rue gripped one Licker, placed it in a pinned armlock, activated his energy dagger with his free hand and plunged it into the center of its head and split it in two while his bretheren eliminated the other ones with fatal shootings and stabbings similar to his.

With the Lickers terminated, the crew stood there trying to get their heads together.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting a feeling the Space Apes aren't responsible for whatever's going on here." Alex said and the others agreed with his statement.

As the group reloaded and ventured further into the mysterious metropolis, a billboard on top of a pizza restaurant caught their attention.

It appeared to be a fitness ad. It clearly said: "Want to build muscle? Shed pounds of unwanted fat and get into fantastic shape? The come on down to the Raccoon City Powerhouse Gym and sign up for a free week trial!"

While the rest of the team kept walking, Alex began thinking to himself. Unknown to any of his squadmates, he did know something about the nightmarish problem going on.

_'Raccoon City'. Why does that name sound so familar to . . .of course! _He thought and unknowingly snapped his fingers, causing his friends to turn and look at him in confusion.

"What is it, Alex?" Jamie asked.

"I've heard about this place. We're in Raccoon City." he said.

"Where?" Raymond asked.

"Raccoon City. It was a community in the mid-western United States in the 20th century. It later became infamous for a viral outbreak that caused chaos and destruction all over the town."

Eyebrows were raised as they hadn't the slightest idea of what this man was talking about, especially the Elites.

"Just what exactly are you babbling about?" Kristine asked the goofy marine. As with John-117, the events surrounding the Raccoon City T-Virus outbreak and its eventual demise were lost to the ages and people hardly knew about it. Of course, details of the incident had ways of getting out sometimes.

The group led themselves into a nearby coffee house, which was clear of more monsters and, taking a deep breath, Alex cleared his throat and explained what he knew as best as he could.

* * *

**Alex's flashback . . .**

* * *

It was lunchtime at the UNSC Boot Camp cafeteria. Everybody, both trainees and boot camp personnel, were sitting at their respective tables, gulping down whatever they were served and chatting away with one another. Today was a rest day for the whole camp and everyone was free to do whatever the hell they wanted.

Sitting at table in the far back of the area were two people, one was Alex Berry and the other was his roommate and longtime friend Rodney Langhorst. Like Alex, Rodney was also the clowning-around type, he also spoke, and behaved, like the type of person commonly known as a "skater dude".

Both wore military jackets, but Rodney wore a gray one while Alex wore a green one.

The two were conversing about capital punishment and torture methods from the Medieval and Colonial years, something they both took interest in. The topic they were in the middle of right now was of the famous iron maiden device which was Rodney's favorite right now.

"The executioner would strap you inside the freaking thing and slam the door shut on you, the spikes on the door side would be driven into your entire body and two spikes on the head case would pierce right in your eyeballs!" said Rodney, scaring himself in a way.

"Damn! That _had_ to hurt!" Alex replied.

"I know, dude!"

After finishing his meal, Alex excused himself to go to the restroom and Rodney nodded in understanding.

Alex made his way through the chow hall and into the hallways.

He entered the camp's only library and into his desired destination. When he was finished, he washed up and exited. He figured that since he was in the library, he might as well take back something with him to read. While looking for something good, he caught sight of a door that stated "Authorized personnel only!", like every other office and room in the camp. He'd seen that place many times during his stay here and the mystery to why it was restricted ate away at him. Although Alex was a "clown" around these parts, tresspassing was not really his thing. But a feeling in his brain kept tugging away at him that told him there was something special about that very room.

After making sure no one was present around him, he gave in to his own pressure and quietly invited himself in. Entering a forbidden zone without permission such as now was his first offense in this camp. Of course, there was the old saying, "It's only cheating if you get caught" and he figured it applied here as well.

He was relived to find that nobody but himself was inside. If he had been caught sneaking in, he couldn't bear to imagine what sort of penalty they'd endure on him.

Everywhere he looked, there were cabinets here and there. Unable to resist and with no time to waste, the young marine trainee picked a cabinet at random and opened it drawer to reveal documents about Earth's history.

He selected a section about American history from the 20th century and skimmed through to find something to spark his interest.

During the search, he discovered a file with the term "Raccoon City" printed on the tip. He had never heard of Raccoon City before and decided to look at the file.

The document started off with about the city's early years, he skipped that as he found it boring. As he flipped page after page of more boorish info, he stopped upon reaching a section that read "T-Virus Outbreak of 1998" and glued himself to it.

The file described to Alex everything about what went on in that year. He learned about the T-Virus and the horrors it had inflicted upon the community the file was named after. He gasped in shock when he read about the many Bio-Organic Weapons(B.O.W.) this ungodly virus had created in the past, the names of all who were forced to battle their way through the city's infected population, the tragic losses, and the ones responsible for creating the virus, Umbrella Inc.

_This has got to be the sickest shit I've ever read. _He thought. He was so glad to be alive in the future than back then, he figured he wouldn't have gotten out of Raccoon City in one piece if he were alive then and there.

He stopped when he realized how long he had stayed in the office and had to withdraw before he was discovered snooping.

Glancing at the material in his hands, he decided to take it back to his dorm and learn more about the virus incident later on. He figured that nobody would care about one missing file as there were plenty to go around and so he concealed the historical document in his jacket and left the office unnoticed.

After the day had gone by, everyone retreated to their rooms. Rodney was briefly summoned to take a phone call and it was during this time that Alex pulled out the hidden document and continued where he left off.

More information revealed that the outbreak in Raccoon City wasn't the only event that happened for he also found out about the infamous Spencer Mansion incident. He wondered if any ancestors of his fell victim to this whole virus mess.

"Hey man, what's that you have there?" Rodney asked when he returned and saw Alex with the file.

Alex quickly snapped back to reality, that file really can suck someone away from their lives and into that.

"It's just a little something I found today."

"Really? What about?"

"It's about some place called Raccoon City. Does that name ring a bell to you?"

"I don't think so."

"Then feast your eyes on this." Alex said and shared the document with his bunkmate.

After they had finished reading, he too was in shock.

"And I thought the history on iron maiden machines was frightening enough." Rodney stated.

"I know."

"Say, where did you find this document?"

"I . . .found it in a part of the library I mistook for a restroom." Alex said nervously. He sighed and prepared to spill the beans. "Can you keep a secret for the time being?" he begged.

Having an bit of an interest in secrets himself, Rodney agreed and Alex told about his activities during his break. Rodney was stunned beyond belief when he finished speaking.

"You jacked this file from a forbidden section of that library?" Rodney said in a whispered tone. He couldn't believe what Alex had done during lunch.

Alex nodded. Rodney stepped outside to check for anyone near their room and found no one.

"Were you seen?" he asked when he closed the door again.

"No."

"Dude, you could have your ass handed to you for pulling off shit like this."

"Ah, but I didn't." Alex said slyly.

Rodney calmed himself down after hearing Alex's tale. He glanced at the file again and asked "How and when are you going to return this thing back to the library?"

"I'll sneak out after hours and put it back. If anyone comes and asks, I went to take a piss, ok? I'll tell that to any MP guard who sees me." said Alex.

Rodney agreed and the two friends went back to reading the document some more.

* * *

**End of flashback . . .**

* * *

" . . . And that's how I know much about our situation." Alex said after he finished with his back story.

For a moment there, none of the survivors could believe what they heard, especially from a goofball like Alex Berry.

"So let me get this straight." Jamie said and rubbed her eyes with her thumb and index finger. "Our own military system had a classified document on this 'Raccoon City' place the whole time and they never informed us about it, even after graduation?"

Alex gave her a nod. Raymond was the first to express disbelief to his story.

"Look," he began to say "You're probably just having PTSD-related symptoms after encountering the psychotic locals and killing a few of them, it's normal for first time killers. Perhaps those Flood parasites we learned about back then are pulling the strings here."

Jamie knew Raymond had a point about the PTSD thing. She did feel some of that herself back on the ship during the fight with the Brutes. But after what she had witnessed back at that infested school, she was starting to comprehend Alex's story to be fact even if it did sound like total bull.

Alex said to Raymond. "PTSD my ass! Dude, have you forgotten what these sicko townspeople were trying to do when they saw us? Most of them succeeded with that injured survivor I told you about. Plus, they didn't look like any Flood I've seen in pictures, their skin was rotting and peeling and there was no 'Flood-ish' stuff anywhere on their bodies. These people aren't Flood hosts, they're _real _zombies." he continued.

After much consideration from the rest, Jamie backed Alex's statement. "He's probably telling the truth." she said in his defense.

"'Probably'?" Alex said, offended by that term.

Jamie resumed. "I mean, think about it. The people here, they're acting like the zombie creatures we see in films and such. I remember viewing parts of a zombie movie during my shift on the ship and seeing the townsfolk's behavior reminded me of it. Raymond, the Spec-Ops guys here, and myself have had our first encounters with these zombie things at a local school a while back. If this town really is Raccoon City and these people are all infected by some zombie-birthing, biological virus or agent or whatever Alex put it, then by all means, I believe him."

It took some time for this startling information to sink in for everyone.

Something came to Kristine. "There's a couple of things I don't quite understand. Why does everything here look like the 20th and 21st century and why isn't this town posted on any map we've ever seen before? If this zombie virus stuff really happened, it had to have ended at some point so reconstruction of the city afterward should have been done, right?"

Alex was confronted by the stares of his human and Sangheili friends since he knew about this more.

"Well, for the first question, my guess is that we may have, brace yourselves for this, somehow time-traveled to the past when we slipstreamed during our small war with the Brutes. I know it sounds like complete bull, but it's the only theory I can come up with right now. As for the other question, the reason we've never seen Raccoon City on any map is because, according to that document, it was wiped out by a big-ass nuclear explosion, ordered by the president at that era, to kill off the zombie plague before it could escape into the world. No rebuilding plans were discussed since, I think."

Hearing that last part scared the hell out of the group. They figured that if they had indeed traveled back in time and with this plague running around, they feared that they would face nuclear annihilation from the nuclear detonation as Alex had mentioned.

He continued. "Of course, that nuke thing kinda feels like a waste to me because, as the file further revealed, there were similar outbreaks before and after the one here besides the mansion thing such as on a train, on a prison island, in a base camp somewhere in Antarctica, a cruise ship, an airport, and later different types of infestations popped up in other Earth countries such as Spain and Africa by something called 'Las Plagas'. That's pretty much all I've got."

After he finished there, the team came to the conclusion that if they were going to be stuck in Raccoon City until the ship was capable of taking off again, they might as well try to survive here for as long as possible and find any _living_ survivors as one had already been found earlier before being zombie dinner, spectating that there had to be more out there. They had but a few days to accomplish these goals and make their escape before that nuclear strike Alex mentioned was to commence.

As they prepared to continue their self-acclaimed mission, Alex was asked by Jamie on how he had gotten his hands on that Raccoon City document long ago. Alex, leaving out the part of snatching it from a restricted office, thought up a cover story and thought it up quick.

"I found it in a history section of the boot camp library. I think it was the only copy they had and probably a rare one too." he simply said and, to his relief, she bought it. His reason for lying about his intrusion in his story was because he was afraid of being turned in when they returned.

The team revved up their vehicles and drove deeper into Raccoon City.

* * *

**Side 3. . .**

* * *

On the other side of Raccoon City, like the UNSC and Elite survivors, the Jiralhanae soldiers had also entered the city limits they believed to be abandoned or destroyed by others of their own kind.

Their leader, Lacertosus, stepped off his means of transportation and removed his Gravity Hammer. He was the most eager of the team of Brutes to spill his enemies' blood.

After a short glance around the city ruins and finding nothing, he gave the group their orders.

"Our enemies must have come directly to this human civilization and so we shall search for them here as one group. If they or anyone else here that is not one of us gets within range of your vision, you are to commence extermination first and ask questions never! Is that understood?"

"Affirmative!" the Brutes under his command answered. They stocked up on their weapons and ammunition and began their march into the seemingly abandoned Earth city.

Besides the hammer, Lacertosus also had a Plasma Launcher. Infestus had a Needle Rifle and two Maulers. Volactius and Volatus were each armed with two Jiralhanae-modeled Plasma Rifles and Bracktanus had two Spike Rifles and a Brute Shot. Each of them were also equipped with plasma grenades and a Jiralhanae combat knife.

Lacertosus and his squad were armed to the teeth and ready to raise lots of hell.

During the journey, Lacertosus was already thinking up horrible ways to kill off the humans and Elites should they be found by them. He thought about inflicting slow and extremely painfull torture on them and laughing about their hellish demise without remorse at all. The thought of hearing them screaming and begging for mercy before dying made him smile his most evil smile yet.

Their travels had led the five Brutes into what appeared to be a sanctuary for Earth's animals, better known as a zoo.

Deciding to start here, Lacertosus ordered the pack to follow him into the area, they all had their weapons ready.

As with the city, the entire zoo was in ruins. Blood was smeared on the floors, walls and food and beverage carts filled with expired consumables. Animal cages and habitats had bent and busted bars and wires, telling the team that they were not alone here. Having never seen a zoo before, they believed it to be more of an incarceration facility rather than a tourist attraction. Although none of the team members gave a damn about anyone who lived in the city, they still wondered who or what brought this zoo into total annihilation. If given the opportunity, the Jiralhanaes themselves would have done the deed themselves.

A growling sound took the Brute soldiers by surprise and from behind a turned-over popcorn cart a tiger stepped out. It's body had rotting fur and flesh, its eyes were white, long sharp claws extended from all four of its paws and its fang-filled jaws dripped hungrily with blood and saliva.

Lacertosus and his followers had no knowledge of the animal, yet they prepared to kill it.

The virus-infected big cat roared and charged directly at the space beings, it targeted the War Chieftain himself. Bracktanus raised his Brute Shot and blew its front legs right off with one round from his weapon. While the mortally injured animal crawled toward the Brutes, still wanting to kill and consume them, Lacertosus approached it, raised his hammer and brought it down over the creature's head, causing it to explode and spill gore and brain material.

After that was taken care of, the team continued onward and soon came upon a grizzly sight before them.

A group of four humans were found and their appearences were quite unsightly. There were but two problems here: not only were they not the exact targets they were hunting for, but what they were currently doing startled the Brute team.

One of them, dressed as a tourist, was feasting on the body of an animal in its hands known as a spider monkey, and the others, a couple of zoo workers and a street thug, were bent over and consuming the body of another human who was dressed as a paramedic. The corpse's right arm was torn off and being chewed on and one side of the man's face was missing and showing muscle and bone. Except for the one feasting on the monkey, their cannibalistic activity on the dead human was almost too shocking, even for the surviving Jiralhanaes, to behold.

"Have these humans completely lost their senses?" Infestus said aloud, not that he nor his teammates and leader cared.

Ironically, the answer to his question was, in fact, yes.

Hearing the voice, the four zombies whom the Brutes mistaked for lunatic humans just as the FOREVER survivors had, stopped eating and turned their sights to the armored Brute warriors and lingered toward them slowly, moaning their wordless wails and reaching for them.

Having no clue about the cause of their strange behavior, the Jiralhanaes unleashed their might on the zombies with ease.

When they succeeded, they were in for another surprise. The half-eaten spider monkey and the dead paramedic began to rise up and together they attacked the Brutes. Both were slain too.

_What reason would these retched humans and their creatures have in devouring one another? _Lacertosus thought. As previously stated, he and his race shared the same hated for humanity as they did with the Sangheili race, but what they just witnessed upon arriving in this zoo, he couldn't think of a way to describe it any further. It was something else.

More of the zoo's nightmarish inhabitants appeared briefly from all around. They were two lions, two zebras, a gorilla and an elephant. All of these creatures had a similar appearence as the zombies and were hellbent for blood, literally.

The Jiralhanae had no potential interest in the animals, but since they were showing symptoms of hostility, the search party had no choice but to fight back.

The elephant roared and the undead animal tribe and the Brutes clashed.

Volactius and Bracktanus were attacked by the lion pair. One of the lions pounced on Volactius, but was grabbed by the throat and Volactius stabbed its unprotected abdominal area with his knife, its fur and flesh began to leak with blood. The infected cat looked at the Brute and was killed with a fierce knife strike in the skull.

Lacertosus had his hands full with the powerful gorilla. If the marine unit saw this, they'd probably crack a joke about him fighting with himself.

The undead primate roared and made a grab for Lacertosus. This angered him greatly.

"How dare you lay your hands on me, Earth abomination!" he shouted. Kicking the gorilla away hard with one foot, Lacertosus rammed the handle point of his gravity hammer in the animal's belly region and swung the weapon's flat section upwards in an uppercut fashion. Due to the power of the Covenant weapon, not only did the infected beast's chin fracture, its head was halfway torn from the neck.

While the virus animal was off guard from its half-severed head, Lacertosus brought down his hammer again and killed it in three blows.

All of the infected inhabitants were soon dead. The only one remaining was the elephant. The Brutes and the giant animal stared on, waiting for the other to make a move.

Suddenly, the undead elephant trumpted again and ran for the nearest Brute, which happened to be Infesus. Infesus dodged the rampaging animal, causing it to collide into a stone wall. It's left tusk broke off from the accidental crash, but no further damage was done and the beast attacked again, this time with its trunk.

Lacertosus and his crew worked together to bring the undead mammal down. Volatus hovered onto its back and grabbed ahold of its other tusk, stopping the animal and making it thrash all around like a maniac.

The Brutes aimed their weapons and began firing at the wild elephant until it died.

Volatus hopped off the creature's back and Bracktanus examined it from head to toe.

"Are the Flood parasites responsible for this destruction?" Infesus asked.

When Bracktanus concluded his quick examination of the dead animal, he answered the question.

"I do not believe so. This must be an entirely new situation we are dealing with, one that could be more powerful than the Flood." he said.

"What now, Lacertosus?" Infesus asked.

The Brute leader reflected the rest of their surroundings for a moment and then answered.

"We keep moving. Whatever outlandish plague these humans and their Earth creatures are enduring, it shall not prevent us from completing our objective." he stated.

Reloading their weapons, the Jiralhanae tribe ventured more into the zoo.

* * *

**I have done it again, and 'bout damn time too. **

**So to put it simply: Sherry's with Claire and Thel 'Vadam now, Leon and John met Ada and Ben(who's now dead) and are now seeking an escape route and the UNSC, Elites and Brutes are wandering around Raccoon City and have had their first encounters with the city's undead population. What dangers will the story's entire cast of heroes and villains take on and how will they react to each of them?**

**The destinations the Halo characters take in this chapter are a reference to the Outbreak games and one of the RE films.**

**It took me long because I was still trying to think of names to assign the surviving Elites with and it was no easy task for me. What I've named them is the best I got.**

**I withdrew the chapter to correct a slight error, I forgot that the Elites removed the "ee" suffix from their last names when they broke away from the Covenant.**

**More to come soon.**


	9. They're Tough But They Ain't Invincible

**Sorry for the wait, but more HaloHazard is finally here. **

**This next chapter, and perhaps future chapters, will contain borrowed elements from "Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles"(the RE2 retelling section) and some parts from "Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City". I bought both games a while ago and got some inspiration from them. Makes me wish I used stuff from them earlier . . . Looks like I'm gonna have to re-rewrite the WHOLE story in order to do that.**

**NOT!**

**Well, enjoy.**

* * *

**Leon Kennedy, Ada Wong, John-117 and Cortana's scenario . . .**

* * *

John, Leon and Cortana didn't quite understand why Ada Wong didn't aquire their assistance in finding her lost boyfriend instead of going it alone, it would have made her mission less risky for the undead would not stand a chance against them together. John had a slight hunch that there was more to Ada's objective than just a simple search.

The group returned to the Septic Pool hall and back into the room where they heard Ben's horrific screams.

Upon entry however, a new adversary was discovered on the bridge of that very place. It happened to be the slug creature that fatally tore itself out of Ben's body back at the holding cell compound.

The slug creature, upon seeing the two men, began generating arms and legs complete with an oversized head within seconds. The eyes on its face were like that of an alien. While standing on its new legs, the monster opened its mouth and regurgitated what appeared to be vomit chunks. Of course, the chunks it spewed out turned out to be not vomit, but miniature slug replicas of its former self.

The monster let out a roar and began advancing toward the survivors. Without hesitation, the rookie officer brought up his shotgun and the UNSC Spartan soldier raised his battle rifle, and both opened fire at the giant slug monstrosity.

The moment blood began to shed from the beast's slimy body, its offspring started crawling toward Leon and John to defend their master. Although focused on the slug enemy, they did take notice of the little slugs inching close to their position. The tiny slug tribe pounced and while Leon managed to hull himself away from the small bastards, some had already clung themselves onto John and attempted to subdue him with biting. Like the zombies, their tiny fangs had absolutely no effect on his MJOLNIR armor suit and shields even though petite sparks emerged from every bite they took.

Leon was about to help in ridding John of the infant slug parasites, but he already had that tactic covered by kneeling down and entering his Armor Lock mode and a few seconds later, he released himself and the strong blast knocked back and killed the baby slugs very much to the parent slug's dismay.

Angered at the deaths of its offspring, the mutant slug approached faster and swiped its giant claws at the two, mostly at Leon since it was in range of him. However, the cop dodged its attack (one that could have resulted in decapitation for him) and fired what was now his last shotgun bullet into its right side, blowing away a chunk of its flesh and revealing some of its ribs while John brought out his machete blade and hurled it directly at the foe, impaling it in the stomach area and the blade stuck out from the back.

Unable to handle any more damage from the combined power of their weapons, the weakened and injured abomination collasped on the metal balcony, it still lived though.

While Leon reloaded his shotgun, the Master Chief went to retrieve his weapon from the monster's body and used it to behead the defeated opponent. Upon death, its entire body began to swell up and its flesh changed into a dark greenish color before shrinking.

After killing the beast, Leon and his partner walked up to the door ahead and he was about to placed the chess-like pieces on its keypad to open the door, but it seemed that they were knocked away and over the balcony during the fight and so John rammed the door down with a shoulder charge.

The two were now in another sewage disposal area with a machine on their right side.

As they descended down a stairway leading to the sewage water, they heard something crackling above on the ceiling. Leon looked at John as he was the one to know whether or not they were about to meet someone or something unfriendly. The soldier's radar detected a yellow signal on approach and he got Leon to keep from grabbing for any of his weapons with a hand motion. Then suddenly, a familiar figure in red leaped down from the ceiling and made a perfect landing right in front of the two men on the edge near the water. It was none other than Ada Wong.

"Ada!" Leon called out. The woman looked up and saw him and the Spartan approaching her.

When the three met face-to-face again, Leon spoke.

"What was that all about?" he asked her in a scolding manner.

Ada was curious to his question but remained silent.

Leon continued. "Running off like that was reckless and stupid! Those zombies are everywhere, not to mention the thing that got Ben!"

"I know, Leon. I was there, remember? Ada said flatly.

After hearing the way the red-clad woman responded, Leon eased his anger and spoke calmly.

"Look Ada. As an officer of the law, it's my duty to look out for you. But we're not going to get out of this alive if we don't work together, okay?"

"Alright, we'll do this your way." she stated and the group of three moved on.

_Here we go again. _Leon thought as he and his comrades viewed the dirty water and stepped in it. Ada had the same distaste about their filthy surroundings. The came across a large metal door with "XD-R" painted on the front and opened it.

Four Crimson Head zombies were found and Leon and Ada shot and killed one each while John disposed of the last two zombies by bashing their heads against the sewer's brick walls.

Walking further, the trio heaved themselves from the water and onto a ledge and entered another door that brought them into a security monitoring room with a square-wide desk with a messenger bag on top, a few steel chairs, several closed lockers, a small elevator, and another one of those chest containers. The chest box was searched and nothing good turned up again.

During their stay in the room, Leon noticed a stack of papers on the room's only table and read them for the time being.

This is what the papers said:

**On the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month, Angela Margaret, chief of maintenance, will make use of the facilities. Be sure to reduce the moisture levels in the facility by activating the fan, as the equipment she will be using is susceptible to the effects of water vapors.**

**On the 28th of every month, the chemical transporter Don Weller will use the facility. The chemicals he will be transporting are extremely volatile. Extreme caution should be observed throughout their transport.**

**On the 6th and 8th of every month, police chief Brian Irons will visit the facility to attend the regular meeting that takes place in the lab.**

**On the 4th Friday of every month, William Birkin will use the facility to conduct a training seminar for the Chicago branch of Umbrella Inc. As the probability of an attack upon William Birkin will be high, take every measure conceivable to guard his life. You will be informed of all other potential visitors and times they will arrive as needed.**

**Guide these individuals to their destination safely. We expect nothing but the best from you.**

**-Charles Coleman, Security chief Umbrella Headquarters.**

That was all the report had to say and Leon tossed the documents in the room's only trash bin, silently disgusted by the mention of Irons' name in the papers. He didn't know who William Birkin was, but since the papers said that this man also had involvement with the viral substance that doomed the city, then he didn't give a rat's ass about him either just like with his former boss.

John took interest in the lockers and went to open them in hopes to find anything interesting. Before he could clasp his hands on the lockers doors and rip them open, he discovered something else: behind said lockers was a small, dark marking. He moved the lockers away and found another door which he had to pry open by force since it was locked and what they found was a ladder that led down into a basement shrouded in darkness.

John's radar sensed more danger down below and the sounds of familiar moaning were heard. Leon had a lighter on him, but he needed to conserve its fuel for a later time and with no flashlights on them, Ada and Leon were told to remain where they were while their big, military friend hopped down to investigate. From up above, the man and woman heard the usual sounds of crushing blows and breaking bones.

With the use of his night vision mode, the Master Chief led himself throughout the pitch-black basement. Two alcohol-filled lamps were found attached on separate walls and they each contained a little fuel even though he seriously doubted he'll be needing either of them down here.

On a shelf, he found two boxes that contained more shotgun ammunition(ammo for the shotguns of this century, that is) and clips filled with magnum handgun ammunition and claimed them both.

Now that his search of the basement was fulfilled, John climbed(or rather jumped) back up and turned over his loot to his allies. With his shotgun already full, Leon placed the extra ammo in his pack and repeated the same with the magnum ammo since he was void of a magnum gun for the time being.

Remembering the lockers, John ripped their doors open and found more nothing. Soon, they eyed the elevator and put it to use.

However, before doing so, John's radar began to sense another presence, this time a yellow signal. Below their very feet was another survivor roaming around.

Upon making it down to the next area, there was, indeed, another survivor among them. It was a blond-haired woman dressed in a white laboratory coat, black pants and slip-on shoes. From what she wore on herself, it seemed that before the outbreak crisis, this woman pursued a career in the fields of science and/or medicine.

The instant the unknown woman locked eyes with the group, she immediately made a 180 degree spin and ran away and Ada and the group chased after her.

Ada reached the hallway's middle section where the fleeing scientist woman went and was about to call her out when the woman stopped, turned around and whipped out a concealed pistol and took aim at Ada.

There's nothing for you here, thieves!" she shouted and started firing her gun. Why did she see them as criminals? Either she was crazed by the outbreak or she mistaked them for somebody else of her distaste.

The hallway's limited spacing prevented John from protecting the group with his Bubble Dome and his Armor Lock mechanism was designed only to protect him.

John was about to put his plan of shielding Ada Wong with his own body into action when Leon already beat him to it by diving in front of the Asian woman. While this tactic spared Ada from harm by the reckless shooter, Leon was struck in his left shoulder by one of the bullets and was down.

The woman ceased her firing and escaped.

Ada was horrified by this chain of events. This man, whom she barely met almost an hour ago, had actually taken a bullet for her, a true sign of protective friendship or even beyond that.

"Leon . . . why?" Ada said softly. John approached Leon and knelt down beside him to inspect his condition. Other than the fact that he was shedding blood from his shoulder, the cop was still alive yet unconscious.

"He's still alive. " he told Ada and she was relieved that Leon survived the shooting rampage. But now he was in need of medical attention for his new gunshot wound.

"That woman, I have to find her." Ada said while facing the door said assailant exited through. "Can you stay here and watch over him, please? I must do this myself." she asked John. She clearly didn't wish to leave Leon's side, but something about that other woman sparked her need to seek her out.

The Spartan knew that her objective was dangerous if taken solo, but he felt he had to honor her request and agreed to remain with Leon. Besides, leaving Leon alone here posed a risk just as well because with him out cold and with nobody guarding his unmoving form, there was a possibility of virus creatures making their way here anytime and finishing him off.

Shaking off her nervousness, Ada snagged a useful map of the sewer's locations off a nearby wall and was gone, leaving the two men and their blue A.I. to themselves.

Cortana thought Ada was crazy going out there alone without backup. But as she once put it, she liked crazy.

About half an hour later, Leon had finally regained consciousness. His mind felt groggy and his face twitched in pain when he sat himself up and placed his right hand over his bullet-stricken shoulder.

He looked around and saw John standing right beside him. But when he didn't see Ada around, he grew worried.

"Where . . . where's Ada?" he asked.

"She went to confront the assailant who tried to eliminate you and her and requested that we remain here with you while she desired to handle the task on her own." Cortana explained.

Leon wanted to further question Ada's desicion to pursue the shooter without their help when his shoulder's pain silenced him.

Eyeing his pack of supplies, Leon checked it to see if either Ada or the psychotic woman took anything, everything was as they were.

He attempted to stand up, but then toppled back down.

Just then a familiar face entered the scene and it happened to be none other than Claire Redfield.

Upon seeing the two, mostly Leon in his current state, she quickly darted to them.

"Leon, what happened! You're bleeding!" she cried in terror.

Leon looked at Claire and spoke in a strained voice.

"We . . . we ran into a woman who was in trouble . . . her name's Ada. Then . . . after that, someone down here tried to kill us . . . and nearly succeeded with me, too. Ada went after the shooter, but . . . I'm worried about her. You've got to find her before . . . something happens to her!" He coughed after he finished explaining.

"But you've been shot!" Claire protested.

"I'll be okay. It's Ada I'm worried about." Leon said.

As Claire was about to say something again, John and Leon realized that Claire had traveled here alone. Her alien partner, Thel 'Vadam, along with the little girl whom she mentioned was with them back at the police station, Sherry Birkin, were both missing.

Claire was asked of their whereabouts and she explained the short details to them on how they got separated. She also asked if they had seen them around here and they said no.

After that, the Spartan commando raised his hand to his helmet's comm link to contact Thel 'Vadam.

"John-117 to Thel 'Vadam, do you copy?" he said.

"Affirmative. What is it, Spartan?" the Elite said over the line.

Due to the sewer system's thick wall structure, there was some static present on their radio waves, but they still allowed communication with their owners, plus their signals were stronger than the modern radios Claire and Leon carried.

Claire and Leon sat back and silently observed John's conversation with his partner.

_Why did Thel 'Vadam call John "Spartan"?_ One of them thought.

"Cortana and I are with Claire Redfield right now, along with Leon Kennedy who has been shot and wounded by a homicidal civilian. She informed us of the perils you two have faced, and the young girl she was with soon vanished afterward."

"The child is missing?" Thel questioned.

"Yes. We have now agreed to a search and rescue mission and we need your cooperation in this as well." Cortana said for John.

"Very well. I shall do my part in retrieving the lost civilian. Over and out." said Thel.

"Oh, and while you're at it, be on the lookout for a woman dressed in red clothing." Cortana added. Thel agreed to that and the lines ceased.

Claire helped Leon up and was going to ask them if they wished to assist her in finding Sherry when a shrill cry suddenly discharged far away. Nobody in that very hall knew who it was, they guessed it was either Ada Wong or Sherry Birkin due to the scream sounding female. All they knew was that one of them was in critical danger.

The survivors then decided it was best to look for Sherry and Ada separately again and Claire wished her friends and A.I. the best of luck and departed from the hall by taking a door opposite of the elevator rather than the way Ada and the scientist shooter went.

"Ada! She needs us!" Leon said. He placed his pack onto himself, but on his other shoulder due to his injury and how painful it would have proven if even the slightest amount of weight was placed on there.

Cortana asked if Leon needed help with his supply bag and he respectfully turned down the offer and the two embarked on their new mission to find and rescue Ada(or Sherry) out of whatever trouble they were both currently in.

They reached another passage of the sewers and climbed over a ledge where two decaying human corpses were found slumped against a wall and picked up from one of the bodies a circular medal object with a wolf symbol on both sides and more shotgun ammo from the other body.

Leon stored both items in his bag and the two hopped back down and, after rushing to the other side of the sewer corridor, they were met by two more colossal spiders along with two humanoid, reptilian creatures. Unlike Claire Redfield and Thel 'Vadam, this was, practically, their first encounter with the latter beasts.

_They just keep getting uglier by the second. _Cortana mentally joked in a negative manner.

One of the reptile mutants made the first move on the humans, mostly toward Leon due to his injury which was attracting it and its friends like vampires.

Leon was about to shoot it with his shotgun, but his injury now caused him slight discomfort in his shoulder due to the weapon's weight and since he was not strong enough to wield the shotgun with one hand, Leon scrambled for his pistol instead. But before he could fire his handgun at the incoming creature which was now air-borne, John stepped up and fired his own shotgun at the cold-blooded freak with one hand.

The creature was blown backward and into the murky water next to one of the brick walls, knocking it unconscious when the back of its head struck against the same wall. This, in turn, caused the others to began their own assault on the survivors.

Leon tried defending himself again, but he felt slightly weakened by his injury again. John noticed and he quickly slid his Bubble Dome device close to Leon and the cop soon became sheltered within the protective energy dome. Feeling it was for the best, Leon stayed in his new sanctuary and watched his partner fight off the virus freaks.

The second Hunter creature swung its big talons at the Spartan soldier and missed, leaving it exposed for a triple-punch counterattack. The first two strikes dazed the monster and the third hit knocked it into the path of one of the oversized spiders and soon the two B.O.W.'s began brawling with each other.

Meanwhile, Leon was itching to leave the bubble dome right now and carry on his search for Ada Wong. He then glanced at his bleeding shoulder and felt that his condition would probably slow him down and get him killed.

While the spider and Hunter were busy tearing each other to shreds (literally), the second spider stepped up and unleashed a string of organic webbing from its backside and at the war vet. Not only did John evade the attack, the webbing also managed to entangle the wounded hunter whom he shot and knocked out earlier instead.

An idea formed in John's mind and he put it in action. He proceeded to trick the hostile arachnid into expelling more of its webbing on the other creatures and it proved successful, he also placed the downed Hunter with them as well. With the three enemies now ensnared together in the misguided webbing, John then goaded the eight-legged monstrosity into getting within close range of him which it did by charging at him. He moved closer to the trapped mutant monsters who were trying to free themselves and when the spider was close and pounced, John moved to the left side with correct timing and strongly soccer-kicked the foe on its unprotected side and caused it to tip over on its back. It quickly kicked its legs in the air in a struggle to reverse its position, plus it was now treading water as its head and face were underneath.

Just as the gang of B.O.W.'s were close to escaping their sticky situation, the super-soldier yanked a grenade from his belt, removed the pin, tossed the handheld explosive at them and turned around and walked away calmly.

The unconscious Hunter regained its senses and dumbfoundedly picked up the UNSC-issued frag grenade and in a flash, it exploded, killing all four foes and splashing a mixture of flesh, blood, water and a few pebbles from the ground everywhere.

After all was said and done, the bubble shield protecting the wounded officer deactivated.

Impressed by what they saw, Leon and Cortana yelled out "dang!" together and went back to their mission.

They went through a metal gate door on the corner where another giant spider was discovered clinging on the ceiling. It was about to spit a toxic substance down at them until Leon aimed his handgun and fired at the creature, causing it to fall off and crash into the water below. It survived the fall until three additional bullets to its head said otherwise.

A couple of more iron doors were approached ahead, one which was blocked by an active waterfall and another on their left on a ledge. A wall-mounted machine with two large coin slots carved in along with red and blue light signals where only the red was seen blinking was seen on their right as they explored further. The machine had "Clearance Identification Device" written on top of a plaque and under the coin slots were symbol imprints of a wolf and an eagle. Leon guessed that to relieve the waterfall of its endless duty, two medals of the aforementioned descriptions needed to be inserted in the very slots in front of them.

He took out his wolf medal and fitted it in the slot meant for the object and it fit perfectly. With one slot taken care of, they still needed the eagle medal to complete the task of operating the machine and neither he or his friend in green armor had it.

Although they could just walk right through the waterfall and reach the blocked door just like that without the machine's help, John felt he should remain by Leon's side wherever he went because of his condition and besides, something other than John's helmet radar told him Ada was nowhere beyond that red door anyway and the water dropping from the ceiling could be filled with remains of the T-Virus or harmful bacteria that could seep into Leon's wound and make things even worse for him.

Leon left the wolf medal in the slot for now and suggested that they split up to find Ada. Leon wanted to take the path on the ledge and suggested that John take the red door since in case it was locked he can just plow his way through without a key as he had done with previously locked entrances and agreed to meet back here if Ada was found safe and, although against the idea, the war hero agreed and they soon went their separate ways.

Leon went through the rusty, iron doors and was now in a large place that looked like a chemical treatment center or another septic pool because down below the area's square-shaped pit was a pool filled with a presumably, dangerous greenish chemical substance or just additional sewage waste.

Above Leon was a bridge platform and where he stood was a enormous gap that cut him off the other side of the area with another iron door.

Leon walked across his own platform and found a machine that appeared to be an oil pressure data transmitter. There were instructions that read "**Insert valve handle here and rotate to move central bridge up or down**".

Leon remembered having a valve handle in his bag and he fetched it out and placed it in the machine's valve hole.

Now he wished John were around so he can just hover them both across the gap. Getting to his task, Leon rotated the handle and the bridge above began to slowly twist and lower itself until it reached the correct angle of the gap and stopped, causing some of the fluid below to splash a bit and Leon was now free to cross it.

More shotgun shells were found inside a desk drawer and were taken. Leon's bag was clearly running out of space as most of it was filled with plenty of spare ammunition and a few of his weapons.

The new entrance lead the lone cop into a seemingly uninhabited tunnel and it was enormous too. The entire place was built completely out of iron and metal. At least there was no sewer water to cross this time.

Despite being alone here, Leon carefully treaded his way through the tunnel without any interfering virus creatures. Along the way, he noticed a red gas canister attached to a wall with a red button on the side and an engraved message that said: **"In case of emergency, press button to release canister."**

Leon wondered what sort of emergency situation this thing would be needed for, but just to be sure, he did as the instructions said and the canister plopped and clanked to the floor and he soldiered on.

As he continued walking, he heard the sound of gunfire ringing out and it echoed throughout the tunnel.

Hoping it was Ada or at least Claire and her companions, Leon put his safety protocal aside and quickly dashed his way further down the passage and soon he found Ada Wong standing on a ledge on the opposite side of a trash disposal area. She appeared to be firing her handgun at something hidden underneath the pond of sewage water and garbage. Judging from the gigantic, blackened shape underwater, it sure as hell was no B.O.W. he'd ever seen around Raccoon City.

"Ada!" Leon called out.

Ada stopped shooting and looked up and saw Leon Kennedy. He reached for his radio to inform John of Ada's discovery, but before he could do that, and just when Ada herself was about to say something to Leon, both survivors felt a sudden tremor all over the tunnel that felt like an earthquake, then the black shape surfaced from the water all of a sudden and lunged at the officer with its deadly, massive jaws and Leon was able to jump back to avoid getting eaten in the nick of time.

When he stood back up, he found himself face-to-face with an hungry alligator and unlike its own kind, this one was of unbelieveable whopping size like the tarantulas, but its size surpassed theirs by a long shot! There were always silly tales of these animals dwelling in sewers and such, but now this was ridiculous.

The titanic alligator roared furiously and began crawling toward Leon.

Leon grabbed his shotgun and fired at the infected rampaging animal like there was no tomorrow(if Leon failed to kill it here, there was going to be _no_ tomorrow for him). While the shells impacted the gator's scaly flesh, the weapon was ineffective in killing it and continued its rampage.

"Oh, shit!" Leon blurted out and was forced to flee back.

The infected giant then started to slap its entire head and jaws around the tunnel walls, this action caused dust to float in the air and it temporarily blinded Leon.

_Damn, I can't see squat!_ He thought as he continued running away from the beast while struggling to clear the dust from his field of vision.

He was now back at the tunnel's entrance door and he viciously tugged at its handle to escape(he wasn't planning on actually ditching Ada, he just wanted to get more space to make the fight with the alligator easy), but there was a problem with that: the door was locked now, thus trapping him and Ada inside with that cold-blooded abomination!

"Come on, open up you stupid door!" Leon said as he repeatedly attempted to open said door and failed. Getting an idea, he pulled out his radio again and quickly contacted John and Cortana about his situation and urged them to hurry and they said they were now on their way.

Giving up on the unbudgable door, Leon went back to check on the creature's progress and spotted its shadow crawling closer to his position, making him panic and sweat with fear.

Thinking this might be the end for him, he then glanced at the canister and another idea came to him.

Leon approached the canister just when the gator emerged from the corner and saw him as he wanted. The policeman rolled the heavy object close enough for the monster to grasp it in its salivating jaws of doom.

With the canister lodged in the creature's mouth, Leon dropped his shotgun, switched to his pistol and took aim at the half-eaten metal object.

"Smile you stupid son of a . . .!" Leon shouted and fired off a single shot at the gas canister. Instantly, the canister erupted and killed the rampaging animal at once.

Aside from the showering blood, flesh chunks and teeth, what remained of the four-legged creature was now a headless corpse.

Leon breathed a heavy sigh of relief, wiped his sweat from his forehead and hustled back to where Ada was.

"See you _never_, alligator." Leon taunted at the body.

Just then, the locked door behind him burst open and fly across the air and slam into a wall. Leon quickly turned and spotted the Master Chief entering the tunnel with his assault rifle in his hands.

"It's okay, now. I already got the situation under control. Sorry you never got the chance for action, though." Leon told him as he observed his recent victory over the dead gator and then led them to his destination.

Leon expressed disappointment when he, John and Cortana learned that the gate entrance to the disposal pit was now sealed shut. The Spartan put his gun away and was about to demolish his way in when Leon waved his attempt off when he spotted a switch box right next to the gate and used it to bypass the gate's electronic lock and it opened up.

They crossed the water pit and climbed up the ledge where Ada stood. Leon suddenly felt weak and dropped down on one knee. His injury made him feel worse.

"This bullet wound isn't making things any easier for me." he said.

"Don't worry, Leon. I'll patch you up." said Ada. She looked around and beheld an unopened box of bandage wraps.

Remembering something, Leon took out the first-aid spray can from his bag, shook it for ten seconds and applied the medical substance on his wound. It stung like hell, but Leon took it like a man and allowed Ada to wrap the bandages around his shoulder.

_That's two I owe you._ She thought as she worked her magic.

Leon thanked her for the medical attention(and himself for having the medical spray with him) and stood up again.

"I just learned recently that Clemens is dead." Ada said grimly.

"What?" Leon said. He wanted to know further details, but Ada shook her head and said, "Never mind. Let's just get out of here. The sooner, the better."

She turned and climbed the wall ladder behind her up to the balcony above them and Leon followed while John-117 hovered to the top.

_Show off . . ._ Leon's mind joked.

The team strided around a corner and crossed another bridge and made it all the way to the top of the platform and found a section that had a monitoring system, a cabinet, a stack of papers labeled "Sewer Manager Diary" and the corpse of a man dressed as a sewer maintenance worker. His blood was splattered behind him and onto a box of electronic controls.

Laying next to the body was another medal, it was the eagle medal that was needed for that coin panel with the waterfall and Leon stored it away.

He was about to take a look at the document when the dead worker then abruptly rose up as a zombie and was disposed of when Leon kicked it back down and John obliterated its entire head.

Leon went back to the diary and read it.

**June 28th:**

**It's been a while, but I saw Don today and we talked after completing out work. He told me he had been sick in bed until yesterday.**

**It really doesn't come as much of a surprise given how long he's been working here.**

**He was sweating like a horse and kept scratching his body while we were talking. I asked if he was hot, but he just looked at me funny.**

**What's wrong with him anyway?**

**July 7th:**

**Chief Irons has been visiting the lab quite often lately. I don't know what he's doing over there, but he always looks grim.**

**The expression on his face has been even more unsettling than usual . . .**

**My guess is that it's because of Dr. Birkin's impossible requests. The chief has my sympathies though. After all he's done for the town, he doesn't deserve this.**

**July 21st:**

**I rarely drink because I'm on the graveyard shift, but I don't suppose I have much to complain about since this is how I make my living.**

**August 16th:**

**Chief Irons came in late today, looking grimmer than his usual self. I tried to joke with him to cheer him up, but he wasn't amused.**

**He pulled his gun and threatened to shoot me! I was able to calm him down, but the guy must have some serious problems. He knows he can't enter the lab without my help and my medal.**

**This is what it means for the chief to "serve and protect"?**

**August 21st:**

**William informed me that the police and media have begun their investigation on Umbrella's affairs. He said that the investigation will be citywide and that there's a possibility they'll even search through the sewers. **

**He asked me to suspend all Umbrella sewer facility operations until the investigation had concluded.**

**The sewer will still be used for passage, but he stressed that I have to be extremely cautious and that I'd lose my job if anyone finds out about this operation.**

**End.**

Leon annoyingly placed the document back on the grid when he finished reading it and the group kept moving. He wanted to toss the papers over the railing and into the pit below, but ironically, that would be littering and it was one of the many things he and every other officer from the R.P.D. were trained to combat against.

Crossing the platform again, another control box was discovered along with ladder that led to a spinning fan above the platform that led to a ventilation tunnel.

Figuring out what the control box was for, Leon used his valve handle again and the fan ceased its operation, allowing the survivors to ascend up the ladder and move into the shaft.

While moving through the shaft, Ada recalled there being dozens of baseball-sized cockaroach insects crawling around when she passed by here during personal lone wolf mission, now they were absent and to her, she was joyful.

The descend downward out of the shaft tunnel returned them to the sewer tunnels and to the spot where the remains of the slain spider and bipedal lizard creatures were found everywhere. Ada instantly guessed that the men accompanying her were responsible for their deaths.

Soon, they reunited with the slot machine where Leon placed both of his required medals into their respective slots and suddenly after doing that, not only did the waterfall stop, but the water at their feet began to drain until the entire ground was completely dry.

Although the machine seemed unneccesary for them, Leon figured that Claire Redfield, Thel 'Vadam or Sherry Birkin might come wandering around here separately and thought of his current actions as a favor for them if they did come.

The survivors opened the red door and went inside. with John leading the way since he was here previously.

A narrow corridor with a bridge complete with wooden flooring led the trio through.

Along the way, the ceiling above them crackled a little, making the travelers feel that someone or something was stalking them closeby. It was possible that the humanoid goliath John fought with may have caught up with the group as his radar detected a powerful presence that matched similarities to his, a presence he hadn't felt the last time he was here. They all gripped their own weapons as a precaution as they continued moving.

They walked down a metal catwalk and exited through another door.

What they found next was an enormous station with a electric, wire-powered sky tram vehicle. Ada found three more ammo clips for her gun and snatched them, she used up almost a lot from her time trapped with the alligator.

A control panel was seen next to the sky tram booth. Leon turned it on and the tram hummed to life and its lights started to shine. The survivors boarded the vehicle just in time as it began to move backwards away from its resting point.

The sky tram moved in a calm pace. Its passangers were about to catch another break when John's radar perceived the same enemy signal from before.

Just like that, a monsterous clawed hand punctured through the tram's ceiling and attacked the three, missing John and Leon, but knocked Ada down.

"What the hell?" Leon said breathlessly as the hand retreated. The surprise attack didn't end there as the claw continued lunging at the survivors. They, with the exception of John-117, fired a few pistol shots at the appendage every time it showed itself.

When it decided to attack the Spartan, instead of shooting it like Ada and Leon were doing, he simply grabbed the hidious hand when it appeared again and tugged at it forcefully, causing the hand's owner to be slammed and possibly pinned down against the sky tram's rooftop.

The mysterious creature roared in anger afterward and strained to free its own trapped limb out of the Master Chief's strong grip, it even barely managed to lift him off the floor for a split second due but not fully because of his armor's weight. While this happened, Leon and Ada took this as a chance to unload more lead into the ensnared hand and soon blood sprayed on John's helmet face plate.

"Um . . .ew?" Cortana said.

Having enough, John released one hand from the giant claw to equip his machete and he hacked at it until a part of the claw was removed and then the soldier finally released his grip on the limb.

Damaged and bleeding, the mystery beast abandoned its objective and fled away into the darkness outside.

Finally, the ride had come to a stop and the survivors exited the tram and quickly checked the vehicle's rooftop for any sign of the thing that tried to assassinate them on board, but it was long gone . . . for now.

From there, they found a flare gun in the size and shape of a cannon and it needed something to be lit with. Although Leon had his lighter with him, he chose not to use it.

John found a key on the ground next to him and handed it to Leon and Ada. It was a key for something called "W. Box".

With nothing else of great interest around here, the group departed the station via a door.

More virus zombies were found and killed when the group entered a cramped hallway.

They marched on and yet again, more walking dead intervined and were fought off. One of them spit out acid gunk at John which deflected off his armor and in retaliation, he raised his hands across both sides of zombie's head in the manner of applauding and shattered the creature's head into pieces and blood and brain matter spilt on his hands and on the floor, much to the disgust of the cop and woman.

Taking another ladder upward, the team was now in what looked like a worker's lounge area. Around here, there was a rack of yellow, hardhats lined up on a wall, a chalkboard on the other end, a few desktop computers sitting on a desk and another empty chestbox.

Leon took a drink from another of his water bottles and offered some to Ada and this time, she accepted the offer.

"Well, that was refreshing. Let's go." she said and they left the room and were now in a place that looked like an abandoned train marshaling yard and up ahead was a yellow-painted train cabin standing underneath the night sky.

With no more monsters in sight, they jogged toward the train cabin and stepped inside to look around while John agreed to be on the lookout for any wandering survivors or creatures.

While outside, the Spartan gazed up at the night sky and at the full moon and stars. Seeing them reminded him of Reach and Eridanus 2 and he wondered what those world looked like in this century. Both planets from this day and age wouldn't be colonized, invaded and glassed for hundreds of years yet.

"Pretty nice looking up there, huh?" Cortana suddenly said and John nodded. "Reminds me of everyone we've ever known back in the 26th century, not including our enemies of course." she said and chuckled a bit from her last statement.

The moment was broken when Leon stepped back outside and used a key he found to get the train car up and running.

The vehicle produced a sound similar to air horns and John followed Leon inside as the platform started to hum and descend downward. Seconds before that happened, Leon attached the train's key to a rubber band and on a scrap of paper in which with a pen he found, he quickly jotted down that he and his group were here along with the train key's purpose and quickly tossed both items out of the platform baseball pitcher style and near the door they came from in case Claire and her friends came by and needed to transport themselves underground too.

During the ride, Ada and Leon took a load off on the cart's only cushion seat while their bodyguard remained standing for the most part.

As they waited patiently to reach their new destination, a banging sound echoed from outside the car and before anyone knew except for John, a familiar claw hand forced its way through the train's wall close to where Ada sat and tagged her on her right arm and knocked her off her seat. She also banged her head against the floor upon falling and was now out cold.

"Ada! Ada, can you hear me? Come on, snap out of it!" Leon said to her, but she gave no response. Her injured arm was bleeding pretty badly and it looked worse than Leon's own injury.

John studied Ada for a moment and confirmed that she had survived the surprise attack, mirroring Leon near-brush with death from the psycho scientist.

_Great! First me, now her._ He thought.

Enraged, Leon grabbed his shotgun and headed toward the train car's entrance to confront whatever was stalking them and harmed Ada. He may have been wounded, but he still had plenty of fight within himself.

"We'll help you out." Cortana stated and Leon silently nodded in understanding and they exited the car cabin.

Both men were on high alert as they began snooping the entire platform for the whereabouts of the unknown target.

John's radar bleeped suddenly as a steel pipe was hurled at them from above at high velocity. The Master Chief quickly caught the blunt object in mid-air with his right hand just when it was mere inches away from striking Leon in the face and chucked it over the platform's steel barriers. The two looked up and spotted their intended enemy standing right on the tram car's rooftop.

It's appearance was downright disgusting. The new monstrosity resembled a human male with an enlarged right arm and a massive, heinous eyeball that moved about inside that exact limb. It's upper body was mostly infected flesh with a few hands visible around its torso.

John slowly fetched for his BR Battle Rifle while Leon already had his weapon raised at the creature as it let out a pained moan and began going through a quick, physical change. It's human-like head slowly shrunk down close to its chest and left shoulder and in its place came a much different head which was black with red eyes. The monster raised its right arm which was now spasming heavily as its claw, which was the same claw that John damaged and hurt Ada a while ago, extended in size. Seeing all this made Cortana and Leon gag slightly to themselves.

With its metamorphosis completed, the abomination hopped off the roof and landed right in front of the police officer and the Spartan commando to do battle.

"Let 'em have it, boys!" Cortana said.

"It's payback time, you bastard!" Leon said to their new opponent and the fight commenced when they opened fired upon the creature.

While being shot at, the monster braved through the gunfire and swung its new large claw at them and missed.

While it readied to strike again, John shoved it away with a boot kick from his right foot and fired another shot at its head, causing the beast to stagger back a bit as his bullets were stronger than modern day weapons.

Leon carefully aimed and unloaded another buck shot at its chest near its former head and its bulbous eyeball. The blast knocked it back a little like with John's weapon, but it refused to succumb to its new wounds and kept coming for them.

It went for another swipe attack, this time it was meant for John, and not only did he evade the blow again, but he also caught the claw in his grip again like he did in the tram car, and delivered three powerful punches to its head and two swift kicks to its stomach and monsterous eyeball and sent it careening into one of the platform barriers.

As much as John wanted to, he had to keep from using any of his grenades for now because that kind of strategy could carry the risk of damaging the platform and having it descend rapidly and bring about harm and maybe death to everyone on board.

The monster recovered from its ordeal and attempted a backhanded swipe at anyone at random. Leon fired again and his shotgun suddenly clicked after that, much to his dismay and panic. John stepped in and blocked the creature's fatal blow to buy Leon time to reload as he was seen scrambling his hands into his bag for leftover shotgun shells.

John and Cortana were both shocked by the strength of this behemoth as it pressed against John's armored hands and managed to grasp its normal hand around the Spartan's right wrist and toss him away, it's power was equal to the Spartan's own.

Cortana grew concerned as John landed on the ground and got back up in a pace as he spotted the monster charging at Leon who was struggling with loading his weapon as one of the shells refused to fit in its respective chamber. He looked up upon hearing the pounding footsteps of the beast and panicked.

"Oh, crap!" he shouted and narrowly avoided an impaling finisher although he dropped his shotgun during the action and plopped himself on his injured shoulder, forcing a pained scream out of the cop.

The Master Chief swapped for his assault rifle and unleashed a hail of bulets at the homidical monster while dashing at it.

The creature turned and was knocked back by the butt of the war vet's weapon really hard, breaking something in its faceless head and stunning it.

Before the foe could recover from its dizziness and facial injury, Leon grabbed his shotgun and with no time to reload, John swapped again for his own shotgun and together, both authority figures past and future loaded their personal lead into the titan's infected body.

Outmatched and seriously weakened and injured to the point of death, the hellion-like abomination groaned and leaned against the railing in pain, its entire body and eye were beginning to lose a lot of blood.

While the beast had its back turned, Leon and John looked at each other, nodded wordlessly and both reared themselves back and rushed at the creature and gave it a good, powerful bulldozer-style shove off and over the railing, sending the former human deep down into the darkness below the still-moving platform with a bellowing roar.

"Serves you right, you mistake of nature." Leon shouted while looking down where it fell and Cortana congratulated the two for their combined work. After that was over with, his mood changed as he remembered Ada Wong and they rushed back inside the car where they found her still unresponsive.

"Don't die on me, Ada." Leon said to her and she was quiet as usual.

Time passed and the train's elevator began slowing down, its occupants knew they made it to their unknown destination.

It stopped completely and before making for the exit, John stepped outside first and scanned for more monsters or the thing that attacked them and, although there was no sign of the creature anywhere, he did find four zombies, but these ones were now nude and more hidious than ever.

They also discovered that they were now within a secret laboratory for there was a laid-out sign on the ground in front of them that read "**Raccoon City Umbrella Research Laboratory**" written in giant, gold lettering.

Leon gave this place the finger in the back of his mind.

John led Leon who now carried the unconscious red-clad woman in his arms. Carrying her put a bit of pressuring pain on his right shoulder, but he didn't care. Leon saw the naked zombies, but he trusted John to handle them and calmly carried Ada into a small security office nearby while John attacked and killed the unclothed zombies.

Ada was gently placed on the room's soft bed and was left there to rest while Leon looked around for any medical supplies for her with John now entering the office with his bloodsoaked machete in his right hand.

A soft groan was heard from Ada and Leon quickly rushed to her side while John observed from a distance.

Her eyes opened and she saw two familiar faces staring down at her own.

"Welcome back!" Leon stated with joy. He was so relieved she was still alive. In fact, if one didn't know any better, he was starting to develop a special bond with this woman despite barely knowing her for almost a couple of hours, it was a somewhat romantic kind of bond. It sounded silly, but he now wondered if Ada felt the exact same way. Perhaps, but for now she felt like crap.

"Hey, take it easy." Leon said when Ada moved around on her bed to get a better glance at her new safe haven with a questioning look upon her face.

"We're in Umbrella's secret underground laboratory." Leon said after knowing what she was thinking. "I'll go find something to treat your condition so just rest here in the meantime."

"But I'll only slow you two down with these injuries of mine. Go and save yourselves while you still can." she said in a weakened tone and turned her head in shame.

It seemed Ada was starting to lose the will to move on, but neither Leon or John were willing to call it quits and they each have very good reasons too, one of them being the fact that, in a way, both men have sworn their own oaths to fight for the good of the public at all costs.

"I told you, its my job to look after you." Leon said and Ada protested again.

"But you'll both be in danger because of me. Even though I've known you for a short period of time, I really enjoyed being with you." she said, the last part referring to Leon.

Leon was taken aback from hearing those very words from her just now. That must have been proof that a connection between them was existent after all. If this wasn't a dire situation right now, Cortana would probably tease them with the classic "Oooooooohhh!" chant from television sit-coms Earth presented in this time.

"I . . ." Leon said, trying his very damndest to conceal a rising blush. He couldn't deny that this woman before him was absolutely stunning, ignoring the flesh wound on her arm.

"I know. I'm not capable of caring about anyone, but I don't want to lose you, Leon." she told him weakly.

"We're leaving this place altogether, count on it. Now wait here, I'll be right back." Leon said and stood back up and went for the door to start his journey in the underground facility.

"I'll back you up, if you wish." John said and Leon stopped to think. He didn't want to leave Ada alone in here, but then again, he didn't want to proceed on his personal mission solo either, plus with the well-trained UNSC Spartan soldier by his side, this strategy would equal a faster means of seeking out treatment for Ada's injury as well as escaping from the zombified Raccoon City along with Claire, Thel, and hopefully Sherry if they ever found this place. The Master Chief's offer was accepted and the two departed from the security office.

* * *

**Claire Redfield, Thel 'Vadam and Sherry Birkin's scenario . . . **

* * *

The second band of survivors that were Claire Redfield, Sherry Birkin, and Thel 'Vadam, journeyed further into the hell that was Raccoon City.

The three entered the inside of a parking garage which, unknown to them, a few of their own had already been here.

Walking further in the parking lot, the group remained on high alert despite the lot being seemingly abandoned.

Just when they thought the lot was void of monsters, Thel's HUD radar began to blink red signals from left to right which consisted of six incoming adversaries.

Sherry and Claire jumped at the sound of their ally activating his plasma swords and saw him placing himself in a fighting stance. The two girls knew what this action signified and prepared themselves for battle as well, mostly Claire as Sherry was unsure how she would do against the oncoming threats.

Just as they figured, an gang of about six Lickers suddenly crawled out from the garage's ceiling ducts and hissed as the survivors standing below.

"It's the 'Inside-Out Men'!" Sherry stated.

Claire thought Sherry's own name for these creature types sounded gross, but she did have a point due to their unsightly appearance.

Thel fearlessly raised his twin swords in a criss-cross fashion and Claire held out her new submachine gun, ready for action.

One of the Lickers screeched as if it were leading the others and they all charged altogether.

One, while still upside-down, lashed its deadly tongue at Claire and she shot the appendage right as it was close to touching her. Bleeding but determined, the same Licker retracted its toungue and pounced from the ceiling and directly at the biker. Claire quickly sidestepped to her right and kicked the Licker on its ribs so hard that it rolled over and exposed its underside and beating heart. Getting an idea upon eyeing the external organ, Claire aimed her gun at the beast and pulled and held the trigger. The Licker screeched in pain and soon died when the bullets from Claire's weapon pierced the targeted heart and caused a bleedout. Other than its brain, Claire now learned the second, fastest method of exterminating these creatures.

Although they were deprived of sight, the monsters sensed the battle prowess Thel 'Vadam possessed and all of them lunged at him, ignoring the girls now.

Even as a combined force, this team-up action of theirs became their tremendous and fatal mistake. The alien quickly killed one by impaling it while it was hurling toward him with its claws outstretched and used its body to knock back the rest.

They got back up and continued their attack on him, completely ignoring Claire and Sherry who were now observing the fight inconspicuously from a distance. Sherry hid behind Claire while the latter aimed her gun at the crowd in case any of the Lickers dispatched from the brawl and attacked them. Claire mouthed to Sherry to remain silent until the situation ended to keep themselves out of harm's way.

The Lickers began dying out one by one. One of their own had its head sliced off and its corpse kicked away by the armored Elite and another had its neck twisted in under a second. With only two left, they each met their doom when Thel killed one via amputation of its two upper limbs and bifurcation and the final Licker when it tried to strangle the alien with its tongue from behind only to be tugged forward, picked up by the back of its neck and having its heart gruesomely ripped out and crushed in Thel's hand like he did with one of the infected crows, causing its immediate death in six seconds.

With the creatures dead, Thel turned to check on Sherry and Claire who remained unharmed. Although they found their Sangheili friend's killing methods against the city's infected violent and disturbing, at least they worked.

As they were about to depart, an extra Licker crawled out from another ceiling vent shaft and quickly ensnared its tongue around Sherry's left ankle, causing her to trip and fall, and began hoisting the frightened and helpless girl upward and toward itself fast like one does with a fish on a fishing pole hook. Sherry accidentally dropped her nightstick weapon during the surprise attack.

"Get it off, get it off, get it off!" she shrieked as she squirmed and rapidly slapped at the slimy tongue with her bare hands whilst upside-down in a hopeless attempt to free herself.

Claire unhesitatingly aimed and fired at the Licker trying to abduct the girl, it lost its grip on the ceiling and both Sherry(who was just mere inches from being Licker chow) and the creature itself descended to the ground below.

With quick thinking and reflexes, Claire dropped her weapon and caught Sherry in time before she could hit the floor. She immediately hugged Claire out of shock while the downed Licker, who survived the nasty fall at the cost of a broken right leg, was killed when Thel tightly wrapped its tongue around its own neck, suspend the creature high above the ceiling pipes and rafters and descended back down. He stood and watched the mistake of nature squirm and choke to death, Claire and Sherry did and said nothing during the time. This tactic was, in fact, the classic hanging execution.

Afterwards, they found the station's holding cells where they came across the body of Ben Bertolucci. The way in which he died sent chills of horror in Sherry Birkin and Claire Redfield, but not Thel 'Vadam. Not out of disrespect, he was just used to seeing death and destruction.

Thirty seconds were spent searching the empty cells and the group departed the cell block after finding nothing important and entered the kennel room where zombie dog bodies were found brutally killed. Except for Sherry, her protectors knew who did the deed here.

Next to them was an open manhole leading to part of the city's sewer system.

_We're getting close, I know it. _Claire thought upon seeing the manhole.

Before proceeding any further, Claire then remembered Brian Irons and figured that, despite his scared, depressed, and somewhat creepy behavior from their first encounter, he was still a survivor and, in Claire's mind, deserved to escape alive.

"Wait." Thel and Sherry looked at her. "I think we'd better find and bring Chief Irons with us." she said.

Thel remembered the individual she was describing, the police chief whom they found sitting alone in his office filled with animal head trophies along with that deceased human body laying on top of his desk.

Sherry felt unsure about going back out there again with the virus creatures roaming around, plus she had a bad feeling about Irons, as if something about him wasn't right.

After a few seconds of thinking it over, the group made their choice and set out to seek the police chief.

Minutes had passed and the three were back in the brown hall with the broken windows. Claire used her club key to unlock the door and they stepped inside. What they found inside their new surroundings were one television hoisted on the ceiling by a hanging panel on their left, a desk with foldable steel chairs with a bowl and carton of unconsumable fruits and milk on top, four locker cabinets and a back room where twin bunker beds, a desk, acid grenade ammunition, and another policeman's corpse were found. The throat and abdomen of the dead man appeared to have been torn out, making Sherry feel sick just by looking at it. There appeared to be no sign of zombification anywhere on the corpse, but just to be certain, Thel approached the body and quickly snapped the neck to prevent the corpse from reanimating.

Claire was about to inspect the acid rounds when a stack of papers laying on one of the beds entitled "Watchman's Diary" caught her interest. Although it was rude to read one's work without permission, Claire needed to know if anything important about the outbreak was written and she scooped the document up and read away.

**August 11th:**

**I finally had the chance to see blue skies for the first time in ages, but it did little to lift my spirits.**

**I was reprimanded by the chief for neglecting my duties while I was up on the clock tower.**

**There's only one thing I still don't understand: the chief seemed to be more concerned about the fact that I was up on the tower rather than that I was neglecting my duties. Why was access to the tower prohibited in the first place anyway?**

**September 5th:**

**I recently talked to the old man who works in the scrap yard out back. His name is Thomas. He's a quiet man and really seems to enjoy chess.**

**He even went as far as to design a special key and lock engraved with chess pieces on them for one of the doors in the disposal yard.**

**We made plans to play chess tomorrow night. I can't help but wonder how good he is.**

**One thing that's been bothering me about him is the way that's he's always scratching himself . . .**

**Does he have some sort of skin disease or is he just plain rude?**

**September 9th:**

**Thomas was a much better player than I had imagined. I used to think of myself as a fairly decent player, but he did a pretty good job of humbling me.**

**About the only thing I imagine that could match his skills in chess is his appetite. All the guy did was talk about food throughout the entire game.**

**He sounded fairly healthy, but he didn't quite look it . . .**

**I wonder if he's okay.**

**September 12th:**

**I was supposed to play another game of chess with Thomas, but we had to cancel it because he hasn't been feeling too well.**

**He stopped by to see me, but I told him to go back and rest since he literally looked like the walking dead.**

**He insisted that he was just fine, but I could tell he was really experiencing problems.**

**Come to think of it, I haven't been feeling too good myself lately . . .**

The diary ended right there and Claire simply returned the document to the bed. She examined the now-headless body and wondered if the dead officer was the author of the "Watchman's Diary" papers. It was way too late to ask now.

Sherry picked up the acid rounds with great care and gave them to Claire to which she was thanked for and the search for Brian Irons went ahead as planned.

Retracing their steps to Irons' office in the large building proved challenging and took a little longer. Eventually, the humans and alien led themselves into an unexplored section of the station that looked like a television news broadcasting studio.

All over there were more scattered chairs, tables and other useless crap. Twin camera stood motionless on their tripod stand and two television screens hung above everything on the ceiling.

Sherry shrieked when another Crimson Head zombie rose up and began its attack on the group. Claire picked up one of the chairs and threw it at the undead foe, stunning it long enough for Thel to step forward, place his right hand over the top of the zombie's head and strongly rip said head right off the creature. The virus carrier thrashed its arms about and fell backwards and Thel dropped the dismembered head down right next to himself.

_Gross! _Sherry thought.

Getting a slight feeling about the small furnance on the far left side of the studio, Claire approached it and used her lighter to ignite it from the inside. While she did this, Thel explored the rest of the studio for any useful stuff while Sherry stood and kept watch.

On the wall next to the furnace were three statue figures that each bore a number engraved on their own plaque coverings. The numbers were 11, 12, and 13.

Claire noticed the mini knobs on the statues and when she rotated them, the statues birthed a small flame on them. Realizing this to be a puzzle, she rotated the knobs in a certain order until something clanked on the floor and startled the survivors. It sounded like coin. As they were about to search for the dropped item, Thel's radar beeped and began picking up another enemy signal and it was closing in on their exact location and fast!

He proceeded to warn Claire and Sherry of the upcoming danger when that same threat interrupted him by plowing through the statue wall and was now standing right in front of the Redfield girl.

It was none other than the giant, green-coated humanoid again. Most of his face and body were now marked with bruises, a swollen black right eye and burns from when Thel planted that plasma grenade of his to save Claire.

Both she and Sherry let out terrified gasps upon seeing him.

_Who the hell _is_ this guy and why's he following us?_ Claire thought.

Standing there, the unknown hulking figure looked as if he couldn't choose which of the following survivors to attack first. He recognized the college biker from their first encounter, he hardly recognized the schoolgirl, but when he laid his sights upon the Covenant Separatist, that's when he mind was made up and focused on him. Although he didn't quite see him directly previously due to his stealth mode, he still was able to know Thel 'Vadam was half responsible for his current appearence.

While the enemy wasn't looking, Claire quietly snuck past him and met up with Sherry, both now stared at the two opposing forces.

"I shall handle this alone." Thel said to the girls without turning his head to them. Even though he could, Thel refused to use his plasma swords or any of his weapons for he chose to engage the stalking opponent in unarmed combat to test his fighting capabilities. Since this human-like titan had no weapons on him to use, the Elite felt that for now, neither should he and so he removed every single weapon strapped on him.

Both girls thought he was nuts to brawl with this monster with just his bare hands as they saw how powerful the stalker was. After all, he did just burst his way through that wall like tissue paper. At least, from Sherry's point of view, this wasn't the monster she informed Claire about when they first met. That one was way more ugly than this one.

Having confidence in their partner, Claire and Sherry quickly exited the studio, leaving the two alone to their dangerous duel. They knew it was going to get messy in there.

Thel taunted the overgrown Earthling by spreading out his arms to look mighty. In a way, this opponent kind of reminded him of his long dead rival, Tartarus.

Without hesitation, both enemies charged toward one another.

The giant reared his right arm back and took a swinging punch at the alien and missed as Thel ducked, but the foe quickly stopped and managed to strike Thel on his back just close to his jetpack with his right elbow, causing Thel's armor shield to spark and beep. That hit drained his shields by thirty-five percent. He knew this figure was going to put up a good fight this time around.

When the target was going to make a grab for the Elite, Thel turned the tables by grabbing the creature's incoming gloved hand and punched him in the face four times while still holding his grip on said hand. He then twisted the man's arm, forced him to bend over and delivered three strong kick attacks to his stomach and chest and flipped him over onto the desk, causing it to suddenly break apart thanks to the applied landing force.

While the enemy was down, Thel brought his right foot straight down on the chest of his opponent and stomped him twice and, to his surprise, the behemoth managed to clutch Thel's foot on the third stomp and counter-flipped him over on his side.

The Sangheili looked up from his view and quickly evaded the creature's heavy stomp, a move that would kill an ordinary human being or even Grunts and Jackals.

The monster approached Thel and was, in turn, backhanded thrice and became dizzy as a result of the blows. It was during this moment that the warrior in space armor rested both hands on the enemy's shoulders and with a grunt, he hurled the silent opponent in the air and right through the studio's wall close to the place's only door he and the humans used to come here.

Just outside where Claire and Sherry were anxiously waiting for the battle inside to cease, they gasped when the coat-wearing B.O.W. came crashing out the studio wall and spilled into the same hall they stood in.

Claire raised her shotgun and was about to open fire until she and the girl saw their partner emerging from the wall's new hole.

The creature in the coat got back up and Thel again barely steered clear of a tackle-uppercut combo by the giant and delivered a combo attack that comprised of a two-fisted strike to his sides, then his temples, and then Thel gripped the man's throat tightly with his left hand, lifted him up until his feet dangled in the air and slammed his right fist directly to his head and face while releasing his grip. This resulted in a tooth flying out of his mouth, a concussion and a great deal of pain on his already-bruised face.

Since Thel 'Vadam sensed that this beastly enemy was unwilling to continue battling, he figured that, as the victor, he had earned the right to slay him. He went to retrieve his sword handle, picked the man up from his prone position, spun him around by the shoulders, activated his weapon and vigorously skewered the deadly Covenant weapon right through the weakened opponent's back and out through his chest. This manuever was very similar to the way Thel executed Truth back in the war.

The defeated giant spasmed for a brief moment from the intense, shocking pain he was enduring and was kicked forward by the dominating alien warrior and collasped to the floor on his back after a slight crash against another wall. His blood expelled from his gashing wound and was now flowing everywhere from which he laid unmoving.

Sherry and Claire stood still with their eyes wide and mouths open. Neither of them could think of something to say to congratulate Thel who was now bent over gasping for breath.

Then Claire broke the silence. "Ouch! You really showed 'Frankenstein's monster' here who's boss." she said with a pinch of humor in her sentence.

Thel turned to see the humans standing close by and deactivated his sword and went to fetch his other discarded weapons.

Before leaving the area, the downed foe was examined from head to toe by Claire and Thel while Sherry remained in her spot.

Thel zoomed his helmet's vision and took notice of two words that appeared to be sewn into each side of the coat's neck collar. The left said "Mr. X" and the other said "T-103".

These stitchings were obviously the identities of this beastly tyrant, but to make it simple, Claire and her friends decided to refer to him as "Mr. X" rather than "T-103", it was easy to remember anyway.

After carefully ransacking Mr. X's hip pouch and finding nothing but empty test tubes, the group left the area, but not before going back to find the slinking object from after igniting those torches. It was a small cogwheel. Not knowing what purpose it was meant for, they took it anyway.

Pretty soon, the group was back in the station's main hall and this time, they had company again and it wasn't hungry zombies like last time. It was another Licker and it was attached to the wall behind them and above their heads within close range of the trio, so close that sneaking off undetected was now out of the question as even the lightest footstep would echo throughout the hall. These things may be blind, but their sensitive hearing made up for their lack of vision and around here, it was pretty much impossible to miss.

Frightened as a kitten, Sherry clasped both hands over her mouth to repress her urge to scream and Claire slowly and quietly began moving her right hand for her pistol.

To save time and trouble over this, Thel wordlessly informed the humans of what he was about to do by pointing to himself, then to the skinless abomination, and added a throat-slitting motion to his neck and for them to quickly move to a safe distance the instant trouble began.

Claire and Sherry got the picture and the biker held Sherry's hand firmly and both prepared themselves.

The plan sprang into action when Thel took four heavy sounding steps away from his spot and, as he expected, the Licker heard the noise and attacked with its tongue.

The girls quickly back away as agreed and watched as their bodyguard confronted the monster. He pulled it down by the tongue, clutched the wildly protesting thing by both of its ankles, turned around and violently slammed it against the main hall's marble flooring, causing instantanous death when the second slam attack caused the Licker monster's entire head and jaw frame to break and shatter the bone structures of those areas. The move also created a large dent on the spot the beast landed on.

Up above on the highest balcony, the survivors noticed a couple of doors that were unexplored and so Thel hovered himself and the humans to those destinations and picked the door on the far left.

What they found was a place filled with gears that appeared unresponsive. Claire cocked her head up and saw a second balcony and like before, the Elite flew them up there.

A few more unmoving gears were found and one of them had a small, circular gap that required something with a similar shape to fit, doing so would probably reactivate all the gears in the room. Claire removed the cogwheel item and placed it within the hole. A switch was seen and it was pressed by Sherry.

The machinery suddenly groaned to life and the gears began to rotate. A sliding sound was heard from their right and a hidden hole was discovered that also revealed a blue stone-like object. As usual, the item was taken when Claire asked Sherry to hold on to it and the group departed from the gear room.

Several minutes later they made it back to the area where the downed helicopter was and relocated the office of Brian Irons. Like last time, he was still nowhere to be found, not even Thel 'Vadam's radar technology was able to locate his signal within radius of the room.

They snooped around the office for clues to his whereabouts. The inanimate animal trophy heads gave Sherry the creeps, they looked as if they were going to leap off the walls and strike.

Thel noticed a painting hanging behind the chair Irons sat in previously. It looked like some kind of ancient Aztec or Mayan picture, on the image were three square-shaped holes. This painting was yet another ridiculous puzzle, one which he didn't quite understand as he was unfamiliar with Earth puzzles.

He directed Claire to it and like him, she didn't get it either. As her eyes glared at the picture's holes, the image of the blue stone flashed in her brain. She asked Sherry for the stone back and placed it into one of the holes. Two additional stones of the exact shape were needed in order to solve the picture's puzzle and unfortunately for the group, that blue stone was all they had to offer. It was going to take time and risks to locate the missing pieces.

Claire was about to groan in irritation when another thought came to her. It was crazy, but she figured that perhaps somewhere in this very office, some sort of hidden switch or compartment door may exist. She remembered seeing something like that in several mystery-themes movies and shows during her time in college.

With no time to waste, Claire began to press her hands around the walls like a blind person in hopes that her theory was correct.

"Um, what are you doing, Claire?" Sherry questioned when she saw what the woman was up to.

"I'm checking if there's any possible secret passageways or buttons, you know, like they do in mystery movies or T.V. shows. Help me find it, sweetie." she said and Sherry copied Claire's actions.

Both girls felt and knocked on everything and everywhere. When Sherry knocked on a wall in front of her next to the office's shelf, it produced a sound different than everything else.

"I think I've got something here." she exclaimed. Claire and Thel felt and heard it too and suspected that this wall led to a secret way just as Claire had hoped.

Unable to budge it at all, Claire and Sherry stepped back and allowed their futuristic friend to ram himself through the wall and that's how they made their discovery of a hidden passage.

Beyond the new area was a caged elevator. It seemed that its only destination was down. Claire had a hunch that this is how Irons vanished without a trace and is now hiding in wherever it led to.

Claire told Sherry to wait in the office while she tended to investigate the elevator's unknown destination and she agreed. Thel was asked to join her and he agreed. With no threats anywhere near their position, Sherry was bound to be safe on her own for now.

Claire opened the elevator's entrance gate and she and her partner stepped inside, she pressed the "down" button and they disappeared from Sherry's sight.

Despite Thel 'Vadam's intense weight due to his battle suit, the elevator managed to escort both himself and Claire down to their destination without any trouble from their combined weight at all.

Soon the ride came to a halt and the duo now found themselves in another hall passage, but it now had a medieval theme to it.

The Earth woman and extraterrestrial being proceeded through the hall, Claire had no need for caution as she trusted Thel to warn her of any danger thanks to his technology.

Although Thel 'Vadam detected no foes in the passage, he did, however, pick up a yellow signal, meaning another survivor was somewhere nearby.

A large, wooden door accompanied by a pair of lit torches came into view. The signal from Thel's radar grew stronger, whoever was still alive was beyond this very entrance.

They entered inside and discovered a secret chamber that was home to a fancy collection of medieval memorabilia. Everywhere they looked, there were axes both large and small, swords, archery equipment, crossbows, pikes, spears, maces, flails, warclubs, warhammers, a row of fully built knight armor suits, a headcrusher torture device and shields of remarkable shapes and designs. On a shelf were rows of disturbing content such as human skulls and skeletal parts and jars filled with formalin, chloroform and other various chemicals.

Behind the knight suits stood the man they had sought out, and the one whose signal Thel intercepted: Brian Irons.

He held a bloodied meat cleaver in his left hand and seemed to be standing in front of something other than a chamber wall. They inched closer and found out that he was standing in front of a dead body and it was the body of the Mayor's daughter they found the police chief with when they first met him. The corpse now laid helplessly on top of a wooden stretcher table, the kind people from the real Middle Ages used to bind condemned people onto and stretch their limbs to painful and outlandish limits.

What they realized upon veiwing the deceased woman's corpse was that her skin remained the same tone. No rotting, peeling flesh or rancid scent like the zombies they faced throughtout the night. Because of this, even though Claire and Thel were not cops or detectives, they began to suspect that her supposed death at the hands of the undead as Irons claimed earlier was but a cover story, this looked more like a homicide act to them.

Without looking, the police chief sighed depressingly and said, "She sure is beautiful, isn't she. I was about to stuff her." Thel and Claire were unsure whether or not Irons knew of their presence, he could have been simply talking to himself. He then turned around and, upon recognizing who was in the underground chamber with him, he chuckled crazily.

"So you've made it this far, not bad you two." he said. The tone in his voice made the girl and future warrior feel uneasy about him.

"But I'm not letting anyone leave my town! Everyone's gonna die!" Irons said again. This time he was starting to sound like a lunatic. After all, an apocalyptic situation like this was sure to drive certain survivors out of their minds, fighting off mutant monsters, witnessing other people die, get eaten and resurrected as one of them.

"Calm down, chief. What happened?" Claire asked in a futile attempt to reason with the upset man.

"Shut up, girl!" Brian responded nastily and withdrew his handgun and aimed it at her and her big friend.

"You couldn't possibly understand what's happened! Those bastards from Umbrella have destroyed my beautiful town!" He advanced toward the duo as he spoke, the hand gripping his gun trembled and his face expressed the insanity his mind was experiencing.

Claire slowly backed away from him and close to the Elite warrior who refused to budge from his standing spot. He didn't mind using himself as a shield for the moment. Irons' gun was no match against him anyway and he could easily disarm the psychotic human anytime of his choosing, but for now he allowed Irons to share whatever information he knew about the horrendous zombie outbreak in order to learn more about it.

The crazy man continued. "How could they do that to me after everything I've done for them! They sent you two to spy on me, haven't they?"

"What are you talking about?" Claire asked.

"Don't play dumb with me! You and them are after the G-Virus!" he barked angrily.

Now they were really confused. "'G-Virus'?" she asked again.

Thel remembered Cortana mentioning the T-Virus when they first crash landed in Raccoon City, but now this mentally disturbed human was speaking of the existence of a second virus similar to that one. If the T-Virus was capable of the entire city's nightmarish transformation, he wondered what terrible power this G-Virus posessed. He figured it was way worse than the previous virus.

"So you _have _been working for Umbrella." Claire said after remembering reading about Irons in a previous document during her journey that stated his involvement with this Umbrella company. "Then what is the G-Virus?"

Irons said nothing.

"Tell us!" Claire demanded.

Realizing that the young college student and the Covenant Separatist really weren't the spies he accused them of, Irons decided to spill the beans.

"If you must know, the G-Virus is the agent that's capable of turning people into the ultimate bio weapons. It's superior to the T-Virus in every way. William Birkin is the brains behind the project."

"William Birkin?" Claire questioned.

"I'm sure you've probably seen his little girl running around these parts: Sherry, is it?" he said and continued. "In case neither of you have already figured it out, the monster that's been tearing my station apart is yet another product of the G-Virus, the ultimate bio weapon!"

He pulled back the pistol's hammer lock without lowering it. Claire was now regretting in devoting her, Thel's and Sherry's time in locating this nutcase. At least she and her buddy now knew about the G-Virus.

"The boys at Umbrella must be trying to cover their tracks. But if I'm going down tonight, I'm taking both of you down with me!"

With that said, the crazed and corrupt authority figure prepared to open fire on them, his eyes displaying remorselessness.

Thel 'Vadam got ready to relieve Irons of his weapon when a sudden, familiar bloodcurdling roar echoed nearby and stopped him. It sounded exactly like the creature young Sherry informed the teen and Sangheili about and possibly the one Irons mentioned seconds ago.

Irons instantly lowered his gun and looked around in confusion and fear.

_Oh, no! It's here! _Irons thought.

Just then a hidious-looking hand burst out from a trap door next to where Irons stood, grabbed onto his right ankle causing him to lose his balance and the monsterous forcibly dragged him underground.

Claire stared in shock and disbelief at the turn of events while Thel, as usual, expressed no fear. Irons' horrific screaming followed by the nauseating sounds of flesh ripping and tearing were heard from where he was abducted until it finally came to a stop.

"What . . . the hell . . . was that?" Claire mumbled. Goosebumps appeared all over herself from this.

Thel inched closer to investigate when the now-mutilated upper body of the police chief emerged from that very pit and landed beside the alien and human. His blood, stomach and other organs poured out where his legs once were, his face revealing a frightened stare. A disturbing sight such as this made Claire queasy again, but she overcame her vomiting urge.

A ladder was seen in the cellar's opening and although Claire was uneasy about what she was thinking about doing next after what just happened, she climbed it down anyway with Thel following suit.

The ladder led them to an underground cave-like passage with a metal bridge. Irons' severed legs were found on the right side of the ladder and Thel kicked them away and off the bridge.

Getting the feeling that Irons' killer was still roaming around the cavern(as Thel's radar detected), Claire readied her shotgun and Thel armed himself with his plasma rifles.

They moved forward cautiously. Footsteps besides their own clanked on the bridge and as Claire guessed and Thel knew as he placed his arm in front of her to warn her, the G-Virus creature that claimed the life of the mad police leader emerged from behind a corner ahead and spotted the two survivors.

This monster pretty much resembled an ordinary, puny T-Virus zombie. It was a male with short, ruffled blonde hair and wore a very torn up scientist laboratory coat, blue pants and a pair of black shoes with its toes sticking out. The only thing that separated this former human from the zombies was its right arm where the flesh appeared to be very darkened, making it look like it had suffered extremely severe burns.

The creature limped toward the duo zombie-style. Then before Claire or Thel could shoot, it stopped and rested its right hand on a rail pipe of the bridge. With incredible strength, it completely removed the pipe with that same hand alone, making Claire a bit nervous while Thel, like he did back with Irons, simply bided his time to strike.

Suddenly, the virus creature's blackened right arm and upper body began to accelerate in size in a matter of seconds. Its newly enlarged limb twitched and soon opened up like a slit and revealed an enormous and sickening, bloodshot eyeball on its shoulder. The grotesque eye squirmed about in place and the monster roared in pure rage and advanced toward the woman and space alien.

Before any bloodshed began, the creature opened its mouth and uttered a single word in a pained, hoarse tone.

"Shhheeeeeerrrrryyyyy . . .!" it said.

Claire was stunned by two things about this new G-Virus abomination. It could actually speak and it seemed to know Sherry Birkin. What could it possibly want with her anyway?

Putting the curiosity aside for later, Claire Redfield and Thel 'Vadam raised their respective weapons and opened fire on the approaching new monstrosity.

The shell pellets from Claire's weapon splattered into the beast's rotting, muscular flesh and the dual plasma energy from Thel's weapons increased damage to the enemy with burns on its skin.

Nevertheless, the large monster shrugged off these attacks and got close enough to swing its melee weapon at them. Out of instinct, Claire ducked to avoid getting hit by the object. When she heard the sounds of double clattering metal along with grunting and groaning, she looked up and witnessed her partner preventing the creature's blunt weapon of choice from striking by gripping it in mid-swing with both hands and holding it in place, his dual plasma rifles lay motionless near his feet.

As the two non-human combatants struggled with one another, Thel 'Vadam was amazed by the brute strength this abomination possessed, it equaled his own and possibly the Master Chief's as well if he were here right now. He now knew right away of the unholy dangers of the G-Virus product.

After a few seconds, the Elite kicked the foe back with his right leg and delivered a strong punch to its chest, causing it to stagger back. It was during this moment that Thel got an idea and placed his hand on his small plasma pistol and began charging it to full capacity.

Angry, the humanoid creature roared again and charged at him head-on. Thinking quickly, the Sangheili whipped out his plasma pistol and fired off a fully, charged plasma shot right at its face, causing it temperary blindness. Claire stood still and observe her friend rushing toward the creature while it was busy shaking off the effects of the surprise attack.

He tackled the foe and caused both to fall to the ground, making it drop its pipe weapon, and the two duked it out in the manner of a fistfight.

For a brief moment, Thel had the upper hand when he backhanded the monster in the face again and followed with an elbow jab to the chest until the beast managed to shove him off with its right arm. It then picked up the dismantled pipe and swung it at the alien, hitting him in the gut and left arm hard as it was rising up.

The warrior grunted in little pain as his suit's shield sparked greatly from the damage the blow caused him and ducked another oncoming strike and socked the hostile creature in its large eyeball when it was about to grab him.

Feeling unable to just stand there and do nothing but watch, Claire pitched in by firing three shots at the monster while it was distracted and was careful not to get Thel caught in friendly fire.

The beast angrily turned to her direction and before any retaliation commenced, the Elite grabbed its enlarged arm, slammed it onto the metal catwalk's railing and added a powerful tug and twisting motion, causing the virus monstrosity to drop its pipe weapon, stumble back and clutch its damaged arm while groaning painfully. It seems that Thel 'Vadam either sprained or fractured this monster's grotesque limb, even moving the giant eye within said limb triggered agonizing pain for it.

To make things worse for the homicidal behemoth, Thel whipped out one of his energy swords and immediately used it to amputate the monster's left arm, leaving it with a bleeding stump and a single arm which was now injured thanks to the Sangheili's actions.

While stumbling toward the side of the bridge in defeat, Claire moved in, placed the barrel of her shotgun close to its head while holding it sideways and when the creature turned around, she pulled the trigger without remorse right in front of its human-like face.

The blast radius knocked the ungodly creature off the bridge and straight into the dark abyss below, screaming in pain and rage as it fell to its supposed doom.

The screaming ceased and Claire let out a sigh of relief and Thel fetched for his dropped plasma rifles and put them and his sword away. A few steps further on the catwalk bridge and another ladder was discovered . . . well, part of it. The "G" monster must have destroyed it when it came here to kill Irons.

Before advancing any further, Claire remembered Sherry and they climbed back up the ladder and back to the elevator. Not that it mattered, but Thel crushed the dead Brian Irons' head completely in case he was to turn.

Sherry gasped in fear as the elevator started moving and was soon greeted by the duo.

"Claire! You're back!" Sherry said and wrapped her small arms around Claire who returned the gesture.

_I can't believe the man who invented the G-Virus is actually her own father . . ._ Claire thought to herself while staring upward as she remembered Irons' words.

Despite their newfound knowledge of the G-Virus, neither he or Claire harbored any feelings of bitterness toward Sherry at all for her father's work with Umbrella. The destruction the T-Virus had unleashed upon Raccoon City was not and will never be her fault.

"What's wrong, guys?" Sherry asked when she noticed both were silent.

Claire and the Elite shook off their thoughts.

"It's nothing." Claire said and kneeled to her eye level. "But I think we found another way out of here. We should be able to find someplace safe if we can just make it out of town."

"But-" Sherry began to say, but she couldn't find the words to finish her sentence with.

"Don't worry. We'll protect you, I promise. But you have to make sure you don't leave our side."

Sherry nodded and they all headed back down the elevator and back to Irons' secret headquarters. After climbing back down the ladder to the place where Claire and Thel did battle with the brutal "G" monster, and she and Sherry were hovered upward by Thel.

Upon reaching the upper side, the group were now brought into a part of the city's sewer system. Claire remembered Leon saying that he and John were on their way here to escape Raccoon City and to avoid the town's walking dead on the surface. When they walked further down the pathway, they found a river of repugnant sewage water and a large, iron gate at the end.

Glaring at the polluted water, Claire knew they had no choice but to cross through it. Sherry knew what the woman was thinking and she too was uncomfortable with the idea.

"Come on, let's go." Claire told the girl. Sherry wanted to say "Do we have to?", but she didn't and hopped down into the filthy river anyway, the very feel of the cold water touching her legs made her want to shriek, vomit, jump out immediately or all three combined. She jokingly assumed she was going to need several baths and showers a day to rid herself of all the grime and stink if she escaped her hometown alive.

Claire jumped in as well, Claire felt what Sherry was feeling about this while Thel pretty much had no problem with the surroundings.

Thel joined them last and they were about to approach the gate entrance when a small, rumbling noise was heard from above them on the balcony. Claire, Sherry and Thel slowly turned around and all three were stunned to see the giant dubbed "Mr. X" patrolling right above them on the balcony. His right hand was concealing the bloodied spot on his body where Thel stabbed him through from their early battle. He couldn't believe that this tyrant creature had cheated death and was up and walking again.

The two girls did their best to suppress any noise to keep from drawing his attention. Their partner from the future on the other hand, wanted to do just the opposite of them and exchange blows with Mr. X again right now, but evacuation of his human allies away from this area was the first task he needed to do first before another duel was to commence. If he wasn't standing in water right now, he would have just activated his suit's cloaking function to mask himself and the human females. He didn't know if it would work on them, though.

Mr. X stopped for a moment and looked down and spotted them, an angry scowl appeared on his grayish face.

"C-Claire . . .?" Sherry whimpered and nudged close to her, scared out of her wits.

"Run!" Claire ordered and they did except Thel. He stood in his spot, locking eyes with the goliath-like being.

Claire called out for him, but was dismissed by a wave of his left hand. She got the message and she and Sherry made for the gate and escaped to the other side, leaving their friend alone with Mr. X again.

The two girls stood where they were as they heard sounds of battle from the other end of the gate.

While Claire began thinking of a way to navigate Sherry and herself through the sewer tunnels, the lower portion of a sewer wall flapped open and sucked in amounts of water . . . and Sherry Birkin too.

Claire snapped to reality when she heard the slight shrieking of her young companion and saw no trace of her anywhere near her and caused great panic within her.

"Sherry? Where are you? Sherry!" Claire called out.

Amazingly, she heared Sherry's voice from underground. "Claire! I'm here! But I'm stuck, so I'm going to find another way to you!" the Birkin girl said and Claire could have sworn she heard the sound of Sherry running on on her own again.

Claire tried calling to Sherry again, but failed to get a response from her. Because Thel 'Vadam was busy with that monsterous figure chasing after them, the option of remaining in place to wait for his return would place Sherry at high risk of fighting virus monsters without anyone protecting her, so Claire was going to have to find and rescue Sherry Birkin alone. She took out her walkie talkie and tried contacting John, Leon and Cortana to ask for help from them in finding Sherry, but her surroundings prevented her radio from obtaining a clear signal so that idea was currently out of the question.

The further the teenage survivor ventured into the sewers, the more she felt like throwing up despite consuming nothing but fresh water. The stench was just as putrid as the zombies themselves, she was starting to wish she had a helmet like Thel 'Vadam.

Several more zombies emerged from their watery graves and Claire ened them via pistol shots to their heads. She stepped out of the water onto another ledge and entered into a security room and took in deep breaths of fresh air the instant she shut the room's door.

Looking around, Claire found a few computer monitors (some active and some inactive), another storage chest container, three locker door merged altogether, a large, square-shaped table with a few foldable steel chairs and a messanger duffle bag on the tabe's surface, and lastly a small elevator unit on the far corner of the room.

Placing the pack on the table to ease her aching lower back, Claire glared at the working monitor screens for any sightings of Sherry and sadly found nothing but more sewer tunnels. She then approached the storage chest for anything good and found more shotgun shells packed in a box. She realized that her personal inventory was stacking up and didn't know how much more stuff she could carry with her throught her survival quest. Come to think of it, Claire had conserved plenty of ammunition and used it sparingly against the infected population ever since she met and joined forces with Thel 'Vadam. She guessed Leon Kennedy went through the same thing when he met John and Cortana.

Eyeing the messenger bag on the table, she got an idea and dumped as much of her weapon ammo into the bag as she can(including the newly-found shells) until the bag was full too (although there was leftover room for a few more items).

"That's better." she whispered and reattached the pouch to her waist while slinging her new bag over her shoulder like a shopper.

Getting back to finding Sherry, she looked at the room's warehouse door and proceeded to open it and frowned when she learned it was inaccessible thanks to its locking mechanism. Without Thel around, she needed to search for a key to open the door.

Luck was on her side as she spotted a simple lockpicking tool laying near the monitor screens. Seeing the tool made her remember times where her brother Chris Redfield mentioned his S.T.A.R.S. partner Jill Valentine and her amazing talent of opening locked doors before and after the mansion mishap. This earned her a reputation as the "master of unlocking", a title she found, without any disrespect to Jill, kinda cheesy and ridiculous.

With careful timing and concentration, Claire successfully disabled the door's lock and found a ladder which she used and decended downward.

She was now in some kind of underground, storage place. Shelves filled with various wiring, repair tools and contruction uniforms and boots were in view.

As she snooped around calling for Sherry, she heard not the young girl she sought after, but the now-familiar moaning and shuffling of another virus zombie which had now emerged from behind a shelf next to her and grabbed her by surprise. Claire knew the zombified people and animals of the town were victims of the T-Virus and while she pitied them, they were now starting to bug her.

_Sorry pal, but dinner's canceled! _She thought as she wrestled with the zombie and shoved it away from her. Next she kicked it farther and made it crash into a shelf. As the creature proceeded toward the woman, Claire placed her messenger bag on the concrete ground, unsheathed her knife and threw it at the zombie. The knife lodged into the right side of the creature's neck and severed its jugular vein. Instantly, blood squirted from the nasty wound, leading to the infected person's eventual death. Claire retrieved her knife and used a cloth from another shelf to wipe the infected blood off the blade before returning it to her sheath and scooped up her bag.

Another door led her back into the sewer tunnels where she searched around and found a dead end with a waterfall. A little voice told her that this spot is where the water tide probably brought Sherry Birkin to even though there was no sign of her anywhere around here and she returned to the storage area and back to the security room.

Before taking the elevator down, Claire searched the conjoined lockers and found one can of first-aid spray and added it to her collection. She also happened to find a trash bin filled with a pile of stapled papers and fished them out and read them.

The document mentioned Sherry's scientist father William Birkin along with a woman who shared the same surname as him, Annette. Claire guessed that this Annette person was a relative of Sherry's and that she too was involved with the G-Virus's creation.

With nothing else new around here, Claire discarded the papers and went for the elevator platform, activated its button and was now descending down slowly. To play it safe, she withdrew her handgun just in case.

The elevator stopped in an underground hallway and she found John-117 and Leon Kennedy in the same area as her.

But her relief of seeing them again immediately dispursed into shock and horror when she saw her cop friend sitting up against a wall with his right shoulder losing blood like a leaking faucet. John was standing next to him and she assumed he was guarding him.

Horrified, Claire jogged to Leon and knelt down to him. At first she mistaked his new injury from contact with a virus creature, but upon close examination, she learned that it was actually caused by a single handgun bullet. Although she was glad Leon wasn't infected by the T-Virus, she still felt scared for him. She also knew that, despite the super soldier literally having guns on him, he would never do this to him. Besides, none of the bullets from his futuristic weapons matched the one resting in Leon's shoulder.

Claire asked what happened and Leon told her everything. They also asked what happened with her to which she too answered.

Then after John contacted Thel with his helmet radio and agreed to search for Sherry Birkin and/or Ada Wong, a scream was heard from a far distance and the group split up again to find their respective survival buddies.

Claire took an exit from the other side of the hallway and was now venturing deeper into more sewer tunnels.

She killed many undead enemies who got in her way and nearly got lost herself when she arrived at a four-way intersection. Choosing wisely, she ventured down one path and she soon arrived in a septic pool room.

As she looked around for any sign of Sherry, a lone figure suddenly emerged from the water near her and climbed onto the platform Claire stood on.

It was a woman dressed as a scientist and, pretty obvious, she was wet and covered in scum. Claire trained her handgun on the woman she believed was yet another zombie until she learned later that the woman was another uninfected human.

Claire had no clue who the woman was and if she was or was not responsible for Leon's condition as he had said (although unknown to Claire, she was), but she still felt concerned for this newcomer.

"Are you alright? What happened?" Claire asked her.

The woman took in large gasps of fresh air after fishing herself out of the putrid water, tilted her head up and saw Claire standing in front of her.

"Get away from me!" she said venomously and shoved Claire away with one hand.

"You just want my husband's 'G' sample, don't you! No one will take that away from me, _no one_!" she said and pulled out a handgun and trained it on the young survivor.

"You're another spy sent by Umbrella, right?" she questioned.

_Again with this whole "Umbrella spy" crap._ Claire thought.

"Don't tell me. You're here to steal my husband's G-Virus, aren't you?" the paranoid scientist asked again with a look of anguish in her eyes. "You're cunning, I'll give you that."

"Husband? Then you must be William Birkin's wife and Sherry's mother, Annette." Claire said. This new situation was beginning to slightly mirror the one she and Thel had with Brian Irons. She also remembered seeing her name in a document earlier before losing Sherry and Thel.

The woman, who's name was now revealed to be Annette Birkin, glared at the survivor with surprise written on her face.

"How . . . how did you . . .?" she began to ask until Claire interrupted her. "Sherry's lost somewhere in the sewer system, you have to help me find her."

Annette took a step back in shock from hearing this. "That can't be! I told her to go to the police building! Why is she here? William will be after her!" she said.

"Why would he do that?" Claire asked. When Annette said that last part, Claire had a feeling that it wouldn't be in the same manner that she and Thel were doing.

"Because the creature that's been causing all this destruction is none other that William himself." she answered in defeat. Because of Claire's usual confusion over this G-Virus business and the same concern both women shared over Sherry, Annette lowered her gun and explained what she knew about her husband and the events that led to the city's viral outbreak.

According to Annette Birkin, two agents under orders from the Umbrella Corperation, infiltrated the underground laboratory compound where William Birkin was laboring over his G-Virus and congratulated himself for his hard work on it. He was supposed to fork it over to Umbrella the instant the virus was born, but rather than fullfilling his end of the bargain, he decided to sell his creation to the American government instead in exchange for a larger reward.

The agents eventually found him and after a short standoff, William was mortally wounded by the agent's weapons. With the scientist/father down, the agents confiscated the G-Virus as well as the T-Virus ones in a metal briefcase and left William for dead.

That's when Annette herself came in and discovered her co-worker and lover bleeding out and in serious need of medical attention which she then left to find.

It was during her absence that the dying scientist picked up a syringe needle filled with what was a final sample of the deadly G-Virus. Regretting what he was about to do next and, hoping that his family would forgive him soon, William plunged the needle directly into his stomach and injected his own biological agent into himself.

Sure the virus saved him from the brink of death as he had hoped, but at the same time, it also sealed for him a fate worse than death.

Claire could not believe what Annette had told her.

"Are you telling me that he injected the G-virus into his own body?" she asked, afraid of what became of William and Annette nodded.

"The G-Virus has the ability to revitalize similar organ functions, but the virus was flawed. Even if you survive the seroconversion with G, you become nothing more than a puppet to its will. Our research was deemed a failure." Annette said and resumed her story to Claire.

She told about how William, in his newly mutated form, managed to hunt down and slaughter his assassins(except for one who barely escaped the surprise attack) and released the T-Virus into the sewers during the fight by shattering the tubes and vials. Soon a gang of rats found the leaking virus and the bodies of the killed Umbrella agents and consumed the virus first and later the corpses. This course of events is what became the ultimate downfall of Raccoon City. The infected rats introduced the T-Virus into the city and infected and mutated the unsuspecting public. How did she know all this? Simple: she veiwed the action from several surveillance cameras and monitors from her lab.

Now Claire knew how Raccoon City became a zombie wasteland.

"So those rats were the carriers of the virus?" she asked.

"Yes. As a result of his virus-induced transformation, William should have lost any prior memories he had as a human by now. I tried to save him, but I was already too late." said Annette.

Claire opened her mouth to speak, but Annette cut her off.

"But there's more to it. Every G-Virus bioweapon, including William, has the ability to implant an embryo into other life forms."

"What are you trying to say?" Claire questioned. All this knowledge of the G-Virus was starting to give her chills, but that was nothing compared to what Claire was going to hear next.

"People with a genetic makeup similiar to a 'G' creature's can stand to birth a superior offspring while the bodies of those with non-related genetic coding are likely to reject the embryo and perish. The only one with the same coding as William right now happens to be none other than his own daughter Sherry, and with them being directly related to each other, the possibility of her rejecting one of his embryos is non-existent if he catches her, it's an inherent, survival instinct. That's why he's after her." Annette said. Saying those words frightened her inside.

Now Claire was deeply horrified by this new information. If Sherry was caught by her mutated father and implanted with one of his disgusting embryos, it would most certainly be the end for her and both Claire and Annette would never forgive themselves for that.

Suddenly, a child's shrilling scream was heard. Both women guessed who it was and were now worried beyond the term.

"It's Sherry!" Claire said. "Let's split up and look for her!"

Annette agreed and began to make a run for the door Claire came from. But before she could open it, she slipped on some of the water that dripped from her lab uniform during her chat with Claire and she fell and banged her head against the side railing.

The blow made Annette feel dizzy and she was starting to slowly lose consciousness.

"Now both her and the G sample are in danger!" Annette said weakly and blacked out.

Claire leaned close to examine the downed scientist/mother and was glad she was still alive. While doing so, a thought came to her.

_What did she mean by that? Does Sherry have a sample of the G-Virus with her?_

Although Claire didn't want to leave Annette behind, she knew she had to resume her quest in finding Sherry before she fell victim at the hands of her own father.

She gazed around and discovered a bridge that was already connected to the far end of the water pit and she crossed it and slipped past the iron door which led to a large, metal tunnel.

As she explored, Claire gasped upon the bizzare sight of a giant alligator's corpse laying flat in the middle of the hall. Part of its head and upper jaw were missing and blood, teeth and other gory details were splattered all over the place, informing Claire that someone used explosives as the sole cause of its death and she moved on.

She entered through the sewage disposal gate and ascended up a ladder on the opposite side of the garbage pond.

A second bridge was crossed above of where and and Annette met(her still form was seen below, and Claire now knew how she wound up in that watery pit in the first place) and she ran all the way up the rising pathway and found another dead zombie and a stack of papers plopped together on a control panel station entitled "Sewer Manager Diary". Claire picked up the reading material, scanned its writings, and threw it aside and pressed on. Everything going on around here was getting more serious and risky by the minute. She really hoped Sherry was alright and, although it was odd to admit it, she also hoped Thel 'Vadam beat her in finding the girl first as he would provide better protection to her.

After a few twists and turns, and depopulating the sewer system of more undead, Claire had finally made it to the same tram car station Leon and his allies were at.

The problem here was that the sky tram was not around this time because it was already at the far end of the station.

Claire approached the control panel to the missing sky tram and fired it up. While waiting for her ride to show itself, she heard a door open and behind her now stood two familiar figures: Sherry Birkin and Thel 'Vadam.

Sherry, with a smile on her sweaty face, immediately darted to Claire and both girls embraced each other again while Thel stood and scraped bits of blood off of his armor.

"Sherry, you're okay!" Claire said cheerfully. They broke their hug and Claire expressed her gratitude for bring Sherry back safe and sound and he simply bowed his head silently and took this time to check his weaponry.

Getting back to matters at hand, Claire looked back at Sherry and asked her a question.

"Sherry, did your mother give you something called 'G-Virus'? Either a vial or a test tube?"

"'G-Virus'? I've never heard of that before." Sherry said confusedly.

"Are you absolutely sure? If you give it to me, I'll hold on to it for safe keeping." said Claire.

"But I really don't have anything like that, it's the truth." Sherry insisted.

Confused by Sherry's denial of obtaining a G-Virus sample despite her mother mentioning her daughter having it, Claire took Sherry's word for it.

_If she doesn't have the sample, then why would her mother say she did?_ She thought.

Just then, the sky tram finally arrived and the re-formed group welcomed themselves inside and the electric vehicle began taking them to their intended destination.

Inside, they were disturbed by the sight of a few gaping holes on the ceiling. Claire and Thel suspected that the G-creature was here before them as Mr. X couldn't have done it due to his second brawl with the alien warrior.

During the ride, Claire decided to pass the time by asking her fellow survivors how they escaped the sewers together and Sherry explained her side of the story first.

* * *

**Sherry Birkin's flashback . . .**

* * *

Sherry Birkin made a rough yet safe landing in the water below after being sucked through the drainage hole.

"Ow!" she said after her rear met the bottom floor.

She heard Claire's voice from above and she informed her that she was fine and that she was going to find an alternative route back to her.

Sherry picked up her nightstick and, despite the nervousness clouding her mind, she proceeded ahead anyway.

The young girl wandered around the sewers with caution, her only defense item clutched gravely in her hands as she called out for Claire, Thel, or anyone alive and uninfected.

She happened upon a room filled with leftover and forgotten construction equipment, and a dead zombie corpse which she instantly freaked out to when she discovered it.

_It's okay . . . the monster's already dead._ She thought calmly and snooped around until nothing useful was found.

She did, however, find a shaft next to the entrance. Sensing that it was safe to use, Sherry climbed inside and slid all the way through like a slide.

The shaft brought her to a large, rusty tunnel pipe with another shaft opening on the far end. The tunnel had old cobwebs hanging around and gunk that she believed to be fecal matter which made her clasp a hand over her mouth even though she never felt like vomiting.

As she walked forward to the shaft, a scattering noise perked her ears and she arched her head upward and to her horror, she saw a lot of giant cockaroach insects scurrying out from the ceiling duct and every single one of them was now coming for her.

Screaming slightly, Sherry picked up the pace and reached the shaft, she desperately lifted the shaft gate and slid herself right through it without looking back. For some deviant reason, the roaches stopped their pursuit of her, but she didn't care as long as she was safe from them.

Sherry had reached a cramped, storage area that was loaded with piles of trash and disposed materials such as a couple of worn-out tires, broken television and video game sets and equipment, a dented shopping cart, a few magazines and books, empty beer bottles and rotten food.

Sherry tried her best to find a way out, but no exit was found. From the look of it, she was about as trapped inside as a person in solitary confinement.

With no way out, Sherry screamed for Claire and Thel even though it was obvious that they were miles away from her current location.

_No! I can't be stuck in here! There's just gotta be a way out!_ She thought and, lucky for her, her wish came true as a beep was heard and the floor underneath her gave way by opening itself and dropped the trash, and Sherry Birkin, out of the space and down below.

Everything went by fast for Sherry as she fell. Soon after, she landed on top of a pile of more garbage inside the same place Leon and Ada met again prior to battling the hostile alligator.

Although her fall was broken by four, soft garbage bags, the fall still knocked the wind and energy out of her body as if somebody punched her really hard, making her feel weak.

Sherry tried getting up, but movement within her seemed impossible. With a small ounce of strength left, Sherry reached out her right hand, weakly called out for Claire and passed out.

It was during this time, and unknown to Sherry, that a hulking, virus creature carrying a steel pipe entered the disposal room and made its way toward the unconscious and defenseless girl.

While this inhuman beast could easily do away with Sherry right now, it had something else in mind. With its left hand, the monstrosity put down its weapon, coughed up something resembling a parasitic organism, turned Sherry over on her back and forcefully inserted the parasite in her body. With its work done, the monster grabbed its pipe weapon and left peacefully for the moment.

Sometime afterward, Sherry awoke. She still felt weak at first, she even had an odd taste in her mouth, but she quickly got over them, left her spot and climbed out of the disposal chamber with its ladder.

After spending more time exploring the sewer facility and still not able to reunite with Claire or Thel, she began developing a fear of being all alone with the virus creatures without someone to guard her from them and, giving in to this phobia, she slowly knelt down next to a corner and sobbed quietly.

Eventually, she heard a noise. Sherry turned her head up and laid her tear-swelled eyes on two shadows on a wall that showed a large, humanoid figure holding someone by the head in one hand and crushing the individual's head in instantly. Sherry assumed the killed person was another zombie since it didn't scream or even put up a struggle to free itself.

Seeing the figure closing in on her location, Sherry readied her nightstick for battle.

When the figure stepped out from behind a corner, Sherry saw that the familiar zombie killer was none other than Thel 'Vadam himself. Although he journeyed here without Claire, having him here sure was better than having nobody around.

"There you are." Thel said as he approached Sherry who was now standing up and wiping her eyes and this time, she was not fearful of him. "We must depart this place immediately, young one."

"Where's Claire?" Sherry asked.

"She is wandering these parts alone and she asked me via my communications radio to retrieve you for her. Now let us go and find her." he told her and the two departed to reunite with Claire.

Throughout their journey, Thel committed most of the killings of all virus monsters who got in their way while Sherry stayed right by his side and watched the gory massacre of the creatures.

A trio of Hunters swooped in and attacked the two. While Thel dealt with the reptilian creatures, one zombie managed to grab her while rising from the ground and tried pulling her close to itself to sink its rotting teeth into her neck. But she fought back by swinging her nightstick at its face. Without thinking clearly mostly due to panic and adrenaline rush, Sherry continuously attacked the undead perpatrator until it collapsed and was dead. During the brawl, some of the zombie's blood splashed on her weapon and uniform, it was harmless though, but this, along with killing the zombie, made her throw up in her mouth a little.

After Thel slaughtered the Hunters, he saw Sherry standing over her first kill and directed her and himself further into the sewers.

One locked electronic door came into view and the Elite was ready to break it down until Sherry stepped up and stopped him.

"I know what that is." she said calmly and approached the door. Her right hand dug into her shirt pocket and out came a blue and white keycard. Sherry slid the card into the door's slot and a beeping noise sounded and soon the door opened for the two to pass through.

Thel asked Sherry where she got that keycard and Sherry said that her mother gave it to her.

Thel accepted her answer and they proceeded until they found their way out of the sewers and finally made it back to Claire Redfield.

* * *

**Back in the tram car . . .**

* * *

Claire was astounded after hearing of the two's progress to get back to her.

"So, what went on with you and that Mr. X guy earlier?" she asked Thel while sitting on the ground with Sherry doing the same and Thel began his explaination.

* * *

**Thel 'Vadam's flashback . . .**

* * *

The Covenant Separatist and the giant codenamed "Mr. X" engaged each other heavily throughout the sewers. Thel found Mr. X to be a bit more tougher this time than in their previous conflict. Dents, marks and rubble appeared everywhere caused by their fighting.

Mr. X shoulder-rammed Thel onto a railing and soon both enemies toppled over and landed into the filthy waters below.

Two Crimson Head zombies appeared and charged for the combatants. Thel grabbed them both by their throats and hurled the undead locals at his equally-heightened foe who now attacked him instead.

Mr. X seized the red zombies and strongly threw one of them aside, killing it as it impacted against a barred section of the area, while hoisting the other up and killed it by ripping its body in half before turning back to the alien.

Thel raised his plasma rifle and fired at giant's body first then aiming for and shooting at his hairless head.

The massive man-like opponent shielded his face and head with his right hand while walking to the alien, suffering some burns on that hand from the plasma bolts during this time, and when Thel's weapon beeped and overheated to which he had to activate its cooling ability and switch to his second plasma rifle gun, the behemoth creature began to charge directly at the armored being, tackling him and pinning him to a wall.

"You will never overpower me!" the Sangheili fearlessly yelled to the tyrant figure and fought his way out of Mr. X's strong grip by breaking his right hand with a single-handed hammer smash move.

Thel whipped out his energy swords and prepared to put an end to Mr. X again. But before he could go through with that, Mr. X acted quickly and knocked the twin futuristic weapons out of his hands and they were sent flying over to the other side of another barred opening of their location and onto a concrete ledge where, upon separating from their wielder, the weapons immediately deactivated themselves and stayed that way until they could be retrieved.

After blasting Mr. X away with his plasma pistol, the space warrior then thought of another way to vanquish the powerful target.

Recovering from the blinding blast, Mr. X noticed Thel 'Vadam taunting him into attacking again which he solefully did at top speed, his boots splashing water everywhere and causing slight tremors with each step he took.

Thel stood his ground, slowly wiggling his large fingers at his side like a dueling cowboy in a western film or show.

With precised timing, the combat-trained Elite squatted down, clutched the sprinting enemy, hovered above while still gripping Mr. X and flung him straight back down to the sewage water as hard as he could.

Just when Mr. X was getting back up, he suddenly felt Thel 'Vadam drop hard on his back and along with that, the alien pinned him in that position with his head submerged underwater with both hands and feet. Mr. X struggled to free himself from this by thrashing about in the dirty water, this manuver was slowly killing him as he was starting to drown which is what the Sangheili being had planned all along.

Whenever Mr. X would raise his hands behind himself to grasp at Thel, they would be shot at by the Arbiter's plasma rifles and the burning pain of said rifles made him retreat his wounded hands.

Finally after a few minutes, Mr. X stopped his useless struggling and was presumed dead via drowning.

_I told you that you could not defeat me._ The Elite thought and resumed his quest to reunite with his human partner.

It was around that time that he got the call from John-117 and was informed of Leon's gunshot injury and the situation with Sherry Birkin and he vowed to aid in the search for her.

He took back his discarded energy swords and ventured throughout every section of the sewer tunnels, killing more infected abominations and keeping a close eye on his radar for Sherry's signal.

Eventually, he happened to get a fix on the child's location and followed it. Another Crimson Head zombie found him and attacked, but Thel countered by fatally crushing its reddened skull and brains with but a single hand and that's when he found young Sherry sitting alone in a corner with a hint of sadness upon her face.

* * *

**Back to the present . . .**

* * *

"Oh." Claire said after Thel 'Vadam concluded his tale.

The sky tram began to slow down as it brought them to their stop and they exited the electric vehicle and moved onward.

Throughout a hallway corridor, zombie corpses were discovered, evidence revealing their deaths by gunshots and physical mutilation along with a hole on the ceiling. Their other allies were definitely here before and had taken care of the undead for them.

More bodies were passed until they reached a ladder that ascended them all into an attic-like office space. There were rows of inactive computer monitors, a chalkboard, a busted-up cabinet, and another trunk chest.

After finding nothing of importance to them, the group left the room and wound up outside an abandoned warehouse meant for storing either damaged or retired trains, a large machine or missiles.

Sherry found a factory map and a key attached to a note via rubber band and gave both items to Claire. She studied the map first, placed it in her shorts pocket and detached the key and read the paper. It stated that Leon, John, and Cortana were here and that the key was meant for starting up the underground train cabin which was now settled underneath the factory. Silently thanking Leon for the message, she and her friends looked down the enlarged silo tunnel in front of them to make sure it was clear of virus monsters.

Seeing another door near the shaft's drop that read "**Turntable Monitor Room**" along with a small, elevating platform built on the hole's edge and a narrow, metal catwalk bridge leading to the room.

"Wait here, you two. I'm going to check that out by myself." she said to Thel and Sherry, pointing at ther intended objective.

"Okay, but hurry back." Sherry said.

With no sign of any undead threats around to cause trouble for any of them, Thel agreed to remain outside with Sherry and Claire advanced toward the monitor room with caution.

Two minutes later, she exited the room with a new key with the letter "U" imprinted on its tiny card and returned to the Panel Room where she approached control system and inserted the key into its lock.

Back outside, the shaft began to move and hum as Claire's actions had activated the elevator and she left the Panel Room with a small smile of achievement on her face. But when she returned to the others, her smile faded when she noticed Sherry trembling in fear and Thel picking up his Covenant rifle and reloading it.

"What happened here?" Claire asked.

"That Mr. X guy showed up again!" Sherry explained and Claire gasped mentally. "Thel fought him again and when the man came after me, I moved out of the way and Thel pushed him down that giant hole." She and Claire stared down the shaft again and found no trace of Mr. X. The rising train vehicle was still yet to be seen at this time.

_If my weapons could not eliminate him in our previous encounters, then surely the height from the fall will achieve the task._ Thel thought, his gun still in his hands.

Claire sighed in relief and the trio waited for their means of transport to arrive.

Nearly twelve minutes later, the yellow train cabin appeared and was now sitting in front of the survivors, awaiting its next orders.

"Let's go." Claire ordered and they all walked to the vehicle. Claire eyed the control panel next to the platform and pushed its button.

A loud, deafening airhorn sound filled the entire area, frightening the girls at first and making Thel 'Vadam take a combat stance with his weapon before realizing that their transport was supposed to emit that noise. Claire jokingly thought the honking was loud enough to wake up the dead.

The group entered the cabin just as it, and they, were seconds away from descending down into where this transportation system had already taken their friends to.

Inside the small cabin was a comfy looking cushion bench, a button panel near the entrance/exit, and a control room on the other end. The only disturbing flaws they noticed about the train cabin was the gaping hole above the bench and the bloodstains on the floor next to where Sherry was standing. Something awfully big and strong must have been here. At first, Mr. X was the prime suspect in this, but further inspection of the hole revealed claw markings, Mr. X couldn't have done it for he had no claws (as of yet . . . ). The bloodstains made Claire and Thel think that whoever or whatever ambushed this very train car must have attacked and wounded Leon Kennedy, the Master Chief, and/or their missing friend Ada (unknown to Claire, Sherry, Leon or Ada, John-117 and Thel 'Vadam can bleed if they sustained enough damage to their battle armor and shielding).

Claire and Sherry helped themselves to the cabin's cushion bench while Thel chose to remain standing and vigilant for any sign of trouble.

Suddenly, Sherry grunted and clutched her stomach and her face twisted in pain.

"What wrong?" Claire asked the girl while holding her close.

"My stomach . . . it hurts so bad!" Sherry weakly said and plopped herself on the bench in a fetal position.

Her protectors wondered if Sherry got infected during her time alone in the sewers. She had no visible bite or scratch marks anywhere on her body. Her current condition resembled a usual stomach ache, but they had a feeling that this was more than just a mere cramp.

Claire then remembered what Annette said earlier about G-Virus creatures being capable of dumping embryos into folks with the same DNA as its own and since her husband William was the only one running loose with the G-Virus flowing in his veins and Sherry being directly related to him, a terrible thought came to her, something she seriously wanted to be untrue: William must have found her and completed his personal mission and his own daughter was now a host to one of his G-embryos.

Claire shuddered at this theory and felt that she should punish herself for failing to prevent Sherry's separation from her back in the sewers.

Just when they believed their troubles couldn't get any worse, intense banging and roaring was heard from outside the platform. The biker and warrior had a hunch that their new unwelcome visitor was the one that created the train's wall puncture as well as shed the blood of the previous passanger.

Claire instantly rose from her seat while Sherry remained where she was. Thel raised his carbine rifle, his radar indicating that the intruder was very powerful and judging by the sounds it generated, it was most definitely _not_ Mr. X.

"Claire, what was that?" Sherry asked and Claire knelt down and stroked the ill and frightened girl's blond hair as the creature outside continued making a ruckous.

"Don't worry, we'll go see what it was." Claire assured her.

They turned to the exit and noticed the red, blinking light from the side panel with a warning that said that once the passengers left the train, returning would be impossible for a limited time. Taking the risk, Claire and Thel exited the vehicle to confront the new threat while Sherry stayed behind and did her very best to keep from crying out from the intense pain her stomach was inflicting on her.

The moment they were outside, the door's electronic lock mechanism activated, sealing the two and Sherry from each other. Like that would be a problem for a war-hardened individual like Thel 'Vadam.

They carefully made their way around the descending platform, searching for the powerful, unknown threat and as they did so, something suddenly landed behind them.

The enemy standing in front of their eyes happened to be the same G-Virus abomination (or in this case William Birkin) that killed Brian Irons, but the creature was different in appearance this time. It was larger, the laboratory coat it wore last time was missing (although its torn pants remained) and its right arm was quite bigger than before and the hand on that same arm was now an enormous claw. Even more puzzling was the fact that the left arm of this creature, the one Thel sliced off during the last encounter, had grown back. It seemed that this thing was capable of regeneration of lost limbs like a lizard or a starfish.

As the duo readied themselves for another battle with the monstrosity, it began to undergo another transformation. It grew bigger in muscle mass (losing what was left of its pants during that), its chest produced what looked like a heart organ surrounded by either talons or teeth, its left hand formed into another claw and worse, a second pair of arms appeared from its sides. Now this titanic creature was going to be more difficult to fight with than before.

Seeing this creature reminded Claire of another part from Annette's story. She had a feeling that this is what she was talking about when she mentioned William infecting himself with the G-Virus and become a hulking, rampaging beast. She then knew that this thing before them was, no doubt, Sherry's father himself. Shaking that aside, she reached into her bag and took out her trusty grenade launcher and her Sangheili partner whipped out his plasma rifles.

The beast roared mightily and marched toward their direction and the biker and arbiter fired their weapons at it.

The mutated William bested the damage from them without halting his advancement, forcing the two to back away while continuing to shoot.

Without warning, William raised all four of his grotesque arms and leaped high in the air and at his targets fast.

"Oh, shit!" Claire shouted as she and her friend bypassed the incoming slash attack in time. But after missing them narrowly, the former scientist still managed to swipe at them with his arms. He missed Claire, but managed to hit Thel and send him flying backwards and slam against the train's side. The G-monster then focused on Claire who kept firing more grenade rounds at him until her weapon clicked empty.

_Crap! _She thought as William got closer to her. Claire had no time to reload and had to dodge another swipe attempt, dropping her launcher while she was at it.

As William chased after her, running footsteps were heard and as Claire knew it, two pairs of burning, hot plasma blades emerged from G-William's chest and stomach and caused him to roar in great pain.

"Leave her be and fight me, instead!" Thel 'Vadam shouted to him and threw him aside.

The four-armed G-Virus titan got up, gawked at his new wounds for a split second, and charged at the Elite in a bellowing yell who was now mimicking his actions.

Claire quickly grabbed her grenade launcher and began cramming shells into its chamber while watching the duel between Thel 'Vadam and William Birkin.

Regardless of the bleeding it now endured, the G-infected William continued fighting with the Covenant Separatist with all its might and what a battle it was turning out to be, even more grueling than with Mr. X. as Thel took several hits from the gigantic foe as vice-versa.

One of Thel's energy swords was once again knocked out of his hand during the climatic battle and it deactivated itself upon hitting the floor. Claire, upon seeing that, carefully snuck over to the lone sword handle and scooped it up for safe keeping. Not only did she find the weapon handle quite hard for her to grip, it also weighed more than the average sword. It was like carrying a heavy dumbbell.

_How the hell does he wield this thing with ease when I can't?_ She thought.

With one energy sword in hand now, Thel swooped low and severed William's left leg, along with its second left arm and half of its hidious-looking right arm, causing an extreme amount of pain for William as well as massive blood loss.

Before the alien can finish him off for good however, the seriously-injured William shoved him away and, using its remaining leg and arms, he hopped off the train platform, clung to the elevator shaft wall and climbed away to recover from the ordeal.

As much as Thel wanted to fly over and slay the retreating creature, he chose to remain on the platform.

"Here. You dropped this." Claire said as she approached Thel and returned what was rightfully his and they soon returned to the train cabin to check on Sherry Birkin.

Once inside, Claire asked Sherry if she was alright, but received no response from the girl. At least she was still alive. She seriously hoped there was a way to clense Sherry of the G-embryo otherwise the ungodly thing in her body would mutate Sherry into something like what they had just defeated outside. She would become a literal version of the phrase "like father, like daughter".

Out of sympathy and care, Claire removed her pink vest and placed it over Sherry, she felt the youngster may need it more than her now.

All of a sudden, their ride shook and jerked to a complete stop. The illuminating panel light changed to a yellow color and Claire looked at it. The message also changed and it said that the motor has ceased due to overheating.

Claire went back outside and was greatly disappointed to learn that the platform was now trapped in mid-air, leaving the survivor band open for further attacks by Sherry's mutant father, Mr. X assuming he survived the fall (unknown to them, he actually did) or worse.

"What is the problem?" Thel asked when Claire returned.

"We're stuck. We need to find a way to jumpstart this elevator." she said and was about to find a way off the immobilized elevator when she looked at Sherry with worried eyes. Because she was now ill and defenseless, one of them was going to have to stay behind and watch over her until further notice.

Thel knew what she was thinking. "Go on. I shall remain here and guard her from all possible threats to the fullest." he offered. Claire agreed to this and departed, leaving the Sangheili being to tend to the young girl.

Claire searched around for an exit from the platform and she was glad to learn that they had stopped within close proximity of a catwalk bridge leading to a place called "PL-600". While there was no door present, there was a vent shaft Claire could use to crawl her way through to gain access, she hoped that she was able to fit through.

Claire hopped off the still elevator, walked across the bridge, and opened the vent's entrance and crawled her way inside. She slid through the shaft until she was eventually carried downward to a bigger gate opening and crashed right through it and landed on the ground and on her ass.

The Redfield woman slowly stood up and rubbed her aching rear. As she stood there cooking up a plan in her head, a familiar humming sound from beyond her position was heard. It was the sound of the elevator outside and she guessed that it was active once again and continuing its downward path.

"Aw, crap!" she whispered irritatingly. Now she was stuck in this area alone and needed to seek an alternative route back to Thel and Sherry. If only she had stayed behind with them for a few minutes more, Claire was glad to remember that at least Sherry was under excellent protection now.

No use in standing there and blaming herself, Claire found an elevator entrance and went to push its "call" button.

Nothing happened.

From the looks of it, this elevator was absent of any power whatsoever and Claire knew she was going to have to get it working again and so she left the temperarily useless elevator and entered through a pair of giant double doors on the hall's other end.

The area she was now in looked like a boiler or engine room. She saw a large, black steel crate and a small elevator ahead that was ready for use. The sounds of loose steam and cranking gears were everywhere.

Claire took the elevator down and spotted another zombie feasting on a dead body. The virus creature saw her and began to stumble toward her. Claire raised her handgun and shot it once in the head and ending its undead life.

After that, she approached the corpse the zombie fed off of for anything she may need and found nothing but another document folded in the victim's pants pocket and she took it out. But before reading it, she noticed that the body was still in human form and Claire's mind flashed back to what chief Irons said about preventing the T-Virus from changing newly infected victims into the living dead. She could behead the victim with her knife, but that would take the job longer to finish and she feared the corpse might rise and try to infect her by then as she was unsure when the person died and contracted the virus, so she repeated what she did with the zombie and put a bullet in the corpse's head. If Thel were around, he'd simply tear the head right off with his own two hands like he did hours ago back at the police building.

Getting back to the papers, she began to read.

**Investigative Report On P-Epsilon Gas.**

**This report demands immediate attention:**

**The P-epsilon gas had proven capable of incapacitating all known B.O.W.'s (Bio-Organic Weapon). As such, it has been designated for emergency useage in the event of a B.O.W. escape.**

**Reports based upon data collected during prior incidents indicate the potential for negative side effects.**

**The P-epsilon gas has been proven to weaken a B.O.W.'s cellular functions. However, prolonged or repeated exposures will result in the creation of adaptive antibodies to the agent.**

**Furthermore, some species have been observed to absorb the P-epsilon gas as a source of nutrition and use the toxins extracted against perceived as a threat.**

**Use of the P-epsilon gas should be severely limited to extreme cases only.**

**We strongly request the authority to re-evaluate the P-epsilon gas deployment system. We would like this re-evaluation to take place immediately.**

**2nd R&D Room/Security Team.**

Claire put the paper down and thought over what she read. This P-epsilon gas chemical sounded like some kind of zombie repellent. If there really was such a thing, it could prove to be useful or it could double the danger. Hell, the papers didn't even mention what the gas's appearance or scent was supposed to be like.

Claire glanced around the rest of the chamber's lower portion and found another ledge with a passage above, but there was no ladder or stairway to reach it with.

There were two bronze-colored crates near the upper platform and she figured she could climb them to get to the ledge, but she saw that the crates were not enough to allow her access up there as they were a mere feet taller than her, she even tried jumping up to the top and failed at that. She wished she had a fancy jetpack like her Elite friend to hover herself to the top.

After looking back at the elevator, an idea came to her and she rode it back up. Her plan was to bring the crate back down with her and push it toward the other crates to increase her chances of climbing to the ledge platform. Her plan worked, but before she could start her climb up the crate, she eyed another elevator in the exact shape as the one in the room. Putting her current move on hold, Claire chose the elevator instead and ventured down.

The elevator had brought Claire to an underground area with a bigger bridge and an gigantic pot full of boiling lava-like liquid underneath the very ground she stood upon.

A box switch was spotted farther across the bridge and she guessed that the switch was the answer to restarting the elevator from before and she was determined to do that.

The familiar sound of a raspy, exhale made Claire shudder in terror. Another Licker creature was residing in that place with her and when she rolled her eyes around in search of the monster, she found not only one, but two clinging to a wall.

Their appearance was different this time for their muscular bodies and brains were green rather than red and the talon on their hands were larger than those of the previous Lickers. Claire believed that these B.O.W.'s must have been some sort of advanced version of their species. Advanced or not, Claire remembered that they were entirely deprived of sight, nevertheless, the were still dangerous and deadly without vision and she refused to allow them to keep her from reuniting with her friends. She marched forward but as quiet as possible if she desired to make it through here and leave without starting a fight with them. Even though Claire could just kill them easily right now, she didn't want to waste any ammo on them.

On the wall, the twin Lickers stood their ground, or wall to be exact, and unknowingly allowed the lone adolescent survivor to pass by.

During the cautious walk, Claire focused her sights on the creatures more than her objective and held her machine gun out of worry.

She made it to the control panel, flipped its switch and quickly jerked her head in the Lickers' direction and was relieved to see they didn't budge from their spot.

With her work here done, Claire began her inconspicuous retreat to the elevator, but then her right foot suddenly tripped up against one of the bridge's raised edges and she reacted with a loud gasp, accidentally alerting the Licker duo to her presence. Their long tongues hung from their jaws as they began moving in on her direction.

_Nice job on stealth, Claire! _Her mind scolded and she raised her machine pistol and let the bullets fly.

One Licker was hit in the face by three of Claire's bullets while the other was struck on its left arm. Claire was trying to strike at their weak spot, their brains, or if they tipped over, their hearts. But they were playing hard-to-get by dodging her shots fast. Angered by their wound, the tongue-whipping duo charged picked up the pace and leaped for the girl, their giant claws extended and ready for stabbing and tearing.

Claire yelped as she barely avoided their deadly talons and sprayed more machine gun ammo at them, she finally tagged one with three shots to its nude brain and killed it.

"Gotcha!" Claire cheered.

The other creature then wrapped its slimy, extended tongue around Claire's right wrist, which was holding her weapon of choice, and knocked her off balance and tugged her toward itself.

Claire struggled to break free with her own strength at first, but that didn't work as the tightened appendage was stronger than her, maybe even stronger than the tongues of the original Lickers.

She tried shooting at the creature with her machine pistol, but she missed every shot because her hand and gun were both ensnared tightly, thus throwing her aim off.

With time running out and no time to reach for her other weapons, Claire unsheathed her combat knife and quickly sliced away at the gross tongue and cracking a quick remark about no "tongue-kissing".

Screeching in pain from having its tongue cut off, thus releasing Claire, it then furiously dashed for her.

Like its dead partner, it too missed Claire when it made a leap at her and crashed on its side. Before it can get up and try again, Claire withdrew her shotgun, stepped closer to the creature and fired at the Licker at point blank. The blast was so powerful, the monster was knocked backwards over the bridge's railing and fell into the lava cauldron below where it screamed and thrashed about as it was cooked alive in the unforgiving hot liquid and died.

"No way am I ordering that on my next meal." Claire joked and departed from the area.

Ascending back to the engine room, Claire forgot about the crate stairs she created earlier and made her way back to the broken elevator which was now up and running.

Wasting no time, she stepped in and viewed the elevator's button selection panel. Three buttons marked "Up", "Down", and "Open Doors" were the only one available and, obvious to Claire, the "Down" button was pressed and the elevator hummed and took its only passenger to her destination.

During the ride, elevator music played through the speakers. The performed tune was a muzak version of a song Claire enjoyed listening to during her high school years and despite a deperate fight for survival going on, Claire found this moment to be quite amusing.

The break concluded when the elevator finally reached its destination. Getting back to reality, Claire pressed the "Open Doors" button and when they opened and she stepped out, she discovered more Crimson Head zombies, but this time they were all void of both clothing and life.

They all appeared to have been killed by hacking, slashing, and beheading means. Claire didn't know if Thel 'Vadam or John-117 did this to them first and she didn't care as long as the zombies were disposed of now.

Walking further, she also discovered the platform with the train cabin car parked right in front of her along with giant gold lettering describing the name of this new location and she ran toward the train cabin and went inside only to find it completely empty save for Sherry's nightstick weapon.

"Sherry? Thel?" Claire called out and got no answer. She fully searched the vehicle just to be sure and still didn't find them.

"Where'd they go?" she asked herself and left the cabin.

Claire found a security room on her far right and figured they must've gone in there as Sherry was in no condition to follow Thel anywhere around the underground laboratory. She ran to the office and went inside.

As her guess indicated, she found her companions inside that very room. Sherry was resting on a bed and Thel 'Vadam stood by her.

"There you are." Claire said in relief, but quietly to avoid disturbing the sleeping child. "How is she?"

"Her condition is the same as before." the Elite reported.

Claire found a rotating chair and took it to sit next to Sherry.

She slowly lowered her bag of stuff to the floor and gently laid her right hand over Sherry's forehead and, to Claire's surprise, Sherry was starting to get feverish.

Claire noticed something red next to the Birkin girl and saw it was dry blood. She certainly didn't remember Sherry bleeding before at all and it made her wonder whose blood it was. She believed that since Leon was already here somewhere within the underground facility, the red substance must have came from him because of his injury although she was very wrong about that.

Feeling the touch of Claire's hand, Sherry woke up and found both of her friends sitting and standing in front of her.

"C-Claire . . . ?" she said meekly.

"Yes, I'm here Sherry." Claire said back.

Sherry slowly sat up and inspected herself in confusion when she learned that she wore Claire's prized motorcycle vest.

"Isn't this . . . ?" she began to ask.

"I placed it on you during the ride down here. It's yours now, for good luck." she assured.

Sherry laid back down on the bed. "Thank you." she said softly.

With nothing else in mind, Claire asked Sherry. "Do you miss your parents?"

Without looking at her, Sherry answered blankly. "Yes and no." Claire was left stunned by her answer and the girl explained her reason. "They were always more preoccupied with their research and were hardly around for me most of my life even though I'm an only child. But other than that, we loved each other very much and always enjoyed spending whatever time we had with each other. Before all this happened, I sometimes preferred to be alone, but with you around, I finally have someone to rely upon."

That was both sad and happy for Claire. Now she really felt sorry for Sherry.

Before Sherry could say anything else, she started feeling more pain in her stomach and she started to gasp as if she were asphixiating and shedded a tear in the process.

Now Claire's worry for her skyrocketed while Thel remained silent for the moment, not that he was uncaring of the human girl's condition at all, he just didn't know how to respond to it. If the G-embryo inside her were to either kill her or evolve her into a hidious mutation like her father, he was going to have to resort into doing the one thing he guessed Claire would be far too horrified of doing if the latter came true and that would be to eliminate Sherry Birkin. Even he was disgusted by that thought and hoped it didn't have to come to that.

Since they were now in a research facility, Claire figured that there must be something around this place to help suppress or terminate the G-embryo without the intention of harming or killing Sherry. Searching for that kind of possibility was risky, but she was willing to take that chance.

"There's gotta be something in this facility to help her!" she said anxiously.

"As a matter of fact, I believe there is." Thel spoke up and he directed Claire to a paper statement on the desk with information regarding the situation with Sherry. Claire scooped it up and read like the wind.

It seems that there was hope for Sherry after all because according to the paper, somewhere within the underground research complex was a vaccine for the G-Virus codenamed "DEVIL". Claire's heart leaped for joy for this anti-virus product was the ultimate answer to Claire's prayers and Sherry's survival.

"We must depart and fetch this antidote for the young one before her infection worsens and claims her." Thel said.

Folding the written instructions into a small square and stuffing it in her pants pocket, Claire turned back to Sherry.

"Hang in there, Sherry. There's a cure for you around this place and we're gonna go and get it to make you better, okay?" she informed her.

Sherry didn't respond as she was busy struggling with her internal pain.

When the two turned to exit the office, they heard Sherry call out to Claire and she reached her hand out to grab hers.

They stopped, looked back at Sherry and Claire knelt down to her.

"I promise we'll be back. Just wait here, we won't be long." she said. Sherry nodded in agreement and watched as Claire and Thel left the security room to began their perilous mission.

"I know you'll find my cure in time, Claire. I believe in you, both of you . . ." Sherry whispered the instant she was alone again.

* * *

**That's all for now. Other than the two RE games I mentioned, some of what you read here has stuff borrowed from other works as well because I thought they were cool. For example, notice how Claire and Thel beat G-Birkin in their first battle after he killed Brian Irons *hint hint*.**

**Sorry to say this, but I'll be moving again pretty soon and so it's gonna be a long time before I can eventually post more HaloHazard stuff so enjoy this chapter while you all can. I'm not quitting if that's what you're thinking.**

**Type you later.**


	10. When First Meetings Go Bad

**Hey readers. Sorry it took me so long to post new stuff here, I've been offline due to moving to a new home. Now that I've succeeded, the hiatus flag on HaloHazard is lifted. Right now, we'll be learning more on the situation of the other Halo characters. **

**Like with the last chapter that featured the stranded Halo teams, this chapter will have material borrowed from RE Outbreak and/or Outbreak 2, Operation Raccoon City(to the person who asked if I played the game and finished it, yes I did. I even played the DLC levels) and probably a little RE3 stuff later on.**

**I can't wait for Halo 4 to hit stores soon! WHOOOO! After seeing some of the game's trailers, I don't know about any of you, but the trailers featured one thing about it I don't understand: I'm talking about, of course, the scenes showing Elites fighting against the Master Chief. I was shocked about that because I, and probably everyone else, assumed the humans and Elites were on peace terms with each other after the Halo 3 ending. Maybe it was just another misunderstanding or the "new" Elites are being brainwashed or something.**

**By the way, the title of the previous chapter is a dual meaning for the Master Chief, the Arbiter, Mr. X and G-William. Both are powerful beings as we all know, but harm and death for all four is a possibility(although we all very much doubt that that last part's gonna happen with the first two characters as they're tough as nails war vets from the freakin' future and we all know what's gonna happen to "Dadzilla" and "Trenchy" eventually). ****Also, Johnson said it in Halo 2 upon the marines' first encounter with the Scarab and I thought it would make a good title for the chapter. ****He always knew what the ladies liked . . .**

**Anyhoo, here's what birthed from my brain so far.**

* * *

**The city's surface . . .**

* * *

From above the surface of Raccoon City, the UNSC marines and the Covenant Separatists drove further into town, searching for things to get them through the time they'll be spending here until takeoff from this place and returning to the zombie-free future where they belonged.

As previously stated, Raymond was selected as leader of this small yet powerful convoy and everyone was fine with it despite manning a gun turret. They needed a leader and his mature personality made him fit for the job and Alex became the group's self-proclaimed "Know-It-All" on the viral disaster and he provided as much information as he can remember whenever questioned about something.

The team kept a cautious eye out for virus monsters, killing a few who got in their way (sometimes literally).

Kh'rue, E'mal, and Ha'mak found the virus-ridden creatures of the night to be quite annoying and boring than dangerous, mostly the zombies as they were too easy to fight be it alone or as a group. Even the Crimson Head zombies were child's play, it was all like swatting down bothersome flies for them. Dogs, Lickers, Hunters, and other B.O.W.'s, they silently admitted to themselves that those things were tougher than the zombies,but they can be handled.

Still, they all remained fully alert during their time here for they learned from Alex that the creatures they currently fought with were the least of their worries as Raccoon City had bigger B.O.W.'s running around causing a whole mess of trouble (two of which were chasing after a police officer, a college biker, a preteen girl, a woman of mystery and two individuals who are the very reason they were sent on their mission in the first place, right under their own feet). Since the marines already knew the dangers of physical contact from zombies, Ha'mak, Kh'rue and E'mal were quickly educated about the subject since they were new to battling zombies as the marines were. With their heavy armor and energy shields, infection for them(the Elites) was going to be slightly impossible for them.

A couple of more infected dogs pounced when they took a sharp turn around a building called "Grill-13". The undead dogs slammed against the space vehicles when they missed their targets. One was splattered under the intense weight of the Warthog controlled by Kristine, Raymond and Jamie while the other was grabbed by its collar by Kh'rue and thrown away when it tried to jump him off of his Ghost ride. It crashed through a wall with an advertisement about adopting dogs. Not gonna happen tonight or any other night at this time.

"Man's best friend? I don't think so!" Alex said after glancing back at the dog bodies. He was now thinking that he should've considered a career as a stand-up comedian back home instead of turning to the United Nations Space Command as he was more funny than serious. But as the saying goes: the past is the past. That old saying, as of now, had become a reality for this team of jar-heads and aliens.

Rather than go their separate ways like they previously did, the team decided to remain together for as much as possible as they believed that sticking together guaranteed better odds of survival in this doomed earth city.

No threats appeared anywhere on the radars in the survivors' helmet equipment nor on the radars installed in their vehicles.

Except for several bodies lying on the streets and sidewalks, burning vehicles and structures and sparking telephone poles, all was quiet.

Suddenly all radars began revealing hostile signals and the group prepared for battle. The approaching threats didn't come on foot as expected because instead of zombies, dogs, or any other ground-bound freak of nature, a flock of crows swooped in from high above and dove for the crew like falling bombs or arrows.

The team dealt with the flying creatures the instant they dove for them. Some were gunned down and some were knifed, crushed and ripped apart. They were flying in too fast, making aiming, or grabbing them, quite difficult at first. A murder of crows wanted to murder them, how ironic.

After killing the crows, the crew moved on.

Fires cackled from burning objects and the smells of smoke, rotting meat and fecal matter filled the air everywhere they went.

They soon came across a gas station called STAGLA and stopped right there. The usual destruction was present, bodies and wrecked vehicles, etc, etc. A chain of plaza stores were present with them that consisted of a liquor store, a comic book shop that sold posters, card and board games, a store that sold music and movies, and a place that sold cellular phones, cameras, CD players, radios and other audio devices. Far away from them was a tattoo parlor, a barber shop, a home improvement store and a mechanic shop.

The survivors exited their vehicles to search the plaza for important with the exception of Ha'mak who opted to remain put as their lookout for random danger that might pass by. Other than that, they felt they needed to walk around to stretch their legs.

While the space troops equipped themselves with the same weaponry they used upon arrival, the Elites stuck with using their swords and daggers because they felt that shooting at zombies with their own guns was too easy and chose to preserve their firearms for anything much bigger and threatening than the moaning, rotting corpses that were once human beings.

As they departed, Ha'mak did some quick inspecting around the STAGLA gas station just to be sure the coast really was clear. He entered its mini-mart and later returned holding dead zombie in his left hand. A large slash wound was visible across its upper body and torso thanks to him. He threw the body back in the mini-mart and shut the door, shattering its glass panel by mistake due to his great strength and returned to his look-out position.

First up was Alex who ventured into the comic book store. Although small on the outside, it had massive inventory inside and he stared all over with awe. Seeing the store's inventory reminded him of his early years as a comic book fan. Sometimes, he used to wish he had superpowers like the characters in the books, what a dimwitted fantasy it was. The deserted store also sold action figures such as a man dressed in a white colored karate outfit doing what looked like a jumping uppercut attack and a red-haired woman dressed in a black and gray colored uniform and aimed a shotgun at a dinosaur that looked like it was going to pounce. He even spotted a poster of a past gathering event for local fantasy/sci-fi fans that featured two characters doing battle with each other: one character resembled a blue robot with a cannon mounted on his right arm and it was pointed directly at a man dressed in a spider-inspired costume and gripping and swinging on what appeared to be web-like ropes. Some of the crap here was not only rare, ancient history to him and his comrades, but perhaps they were worth a great massive amount of wealth in the 26th century. Due to their destroyed appearances, the items might have lost some or all value.

He nearly freaked out when he found more zombies, but withheld his instinct to shoot, shout or run, or any combination of the three when he realized they were already dead. They appeared to be dressed in superhero/supervillain costumes and some had monster makeup painted on their faces. One of the corpses wore makeup and a costume that made the person look exactly like the very monster the T-Virus turned everyone into when it hit: a zombie. How ironic.

"You, buddy, look 'deader' that ever now." Alex said to the body. Looking around carefully, he then added in his mind, _Thank god no one heard that_.

Jamie entered the liquor shop and, upon hearing the sound of the door's bell chime, she instinctively took aim with her submachine pistols and later lowered them. The floor and shelves were littered with rotten food and beverages, lottery tickets and tobacco products and a few rotting bodies were discovered behind the cash register counter and way in the back where the store's only restroom was.

After finding no monsters around here, she was about to make for the exit when she spotted a few unopened beverage cans sitting inside one of the store's coolers untouched by anything. One of those drinks was a can of raspberry-lemonade flavored iced tea and it was her favorite flavor, the others were club soda and beer. Jamie was not a very big fan of alcoholic drinks, both for its taste and for what it does to those who went overboard with it.

Feeling thirsty even though now didn't look like the best time, Jamie set her gun down on the counter and took the drink. She didn't approve of taking things without paying for them or without permission, but the city was going to be nuked in a few days and the store, as well as every business shop in town, was run by nobody, and so she figured, why not? But before she could open it, she stopped upon having a sudden thought of the T-Virus possibly contaminating all consumables in town, making her feel little regret from even touching the item. Inspecting it carefully, Jamie found that the can showed no signs of damage anywhere on it and therefore the virus couldn't have penetrated the product.

Deciding on that statement, and the fact that she hadn't had anything since before and after the crash that brought them to this year, she opened the can and downed the raspberry tea instantly.

_That's better._ She thought and after finishing it completely, she disposed of the now-empty can, took extra drinks for her comrades and returned to her mission.

Kristine entered the video store. Like with the place Alex occupied, the stuff inside here was ancient to her. Hell, for all of them. Rows upon rows of 20th century movies, music and video games and the machines used to operate them were found and in ruination. They were in the forms of tapes, CD's, vinyl records and cartridges.

Beyond her spot behind a "Documentary" movie section and a shelf with rock albums was a room with jewelry bead ropes for an entrance and a sign above that said "Adults Only!" with an "XXX" rating sign below the first sign and a pair of non-working siren lights. It was a pornography movie section. Kristine scoffed in displeasure of seeing that place and was disgusted that before the zombie problem, some people today were just as sick and perverted as those back home, leading her to currently nickname this era "The Stupid Ages".

Just as she was about to leave, a male zombie appeared from the porn movie room. This zombie had no clothing on except for underwear, a bra and lipstick. Whoever this zombie was before must have been a serious porn addict.

Kristine jump-kicked the creature into a closet, trapped it inside and showed herself out the door.

Raymond directed himself to the barbershop. It was like all the other stores and probably every single one all over town: a complete pigsty. A few zombie corpses were found, two of them looked like they had bad hair days when they were alive.

Afterwards he searched the cellphone store, coming across the usual: nothing but junk and dead people. One corpse of a woman had a cellphone crammed inside her mouth. They always said that talking on the phone too much was a bad habit, it now became the death of this lost soul.

E'mal and Kh'rue paid a visit to the other mentioned stores and didn't know what to do with the discarded human stuff as they were unfamiliar with any of it as much as they were with futuristic items and technology. The two later regrouped at where they parked and noticed everyone else apparently doing the same.

"Anything to report?" Raymond asked and they all shook their heads. Kristine never bothered to talk about her encounter with the "porn zombie" and just kept it to herself as they left the plaza and gas station. Jamie handed the team the beverages she took and was thanked for it.

Later on in front of a building meant for journalism and newspaper publishing, the team had another run-in with twelve zombies (five of them Crimson Heads), three Lickers, four dogs and one Hunter. This Hunter was different from the other ones. Its green skin was darker than before and red streak lines were plastered all over its body and it was slightly bigger than its counterparts. It was as if it were some kind of advanced, pumped-up version of its species.

About a third of the creatures, mostly the zombies, went down in under a minute. Blood, guts, and teeth spewed all over and bullets. All seven survivors resorted to killing their enemies with melee and hand to hand combat tactics to conserve ammo, although some were shot at when necessary.

After killing a fair share of enemy creatures, Kristine gasped when she was unknowingly shoved by a Crimson Head zombie and bashed the palms of her hands against the side of a totaled school bus when trying to control her balance. Although she was wearing gloves, the painful sensation still got to her.

Determined to get back at the zombie that shoved her, and from being touched, she forced it against the same bus she hit when it tried biting her. She socked it square in the face four times to stun it while carefully avoiding its enlarged nails. Then she unsheathed her knife and slashed and hacked at the zombie several times before turning it around and lodging it into its back and giving it a good, hard twisting motion. Having enough of the assault, the zombie groaned and fell flat on the ground dead. Kristine's knife blade was stained with dark-red blood and she didn't seem to notice as she continued fighting.

Alex was seen driving around in a thin, circular motion, firing a few burst shots from his assault rifle at every monster chasing him since his Mongoose had no built-in weapons like the other vehicles did. One zombie was kicked away hard when it got within close proximity. Eyeing a Licker leaping into the fight from behind a fence, Alex turned, drove toward it and rammed the tip of his Mongoose into the monster just as it sensed him approaching its direction and was about to dodge out of the way. The creature was painfully plowed into the side of a brick wall belonging to a tobacco shop where it yelled until it was coughing up blood and died.

"K to the I to the A, zom-bitch!" he shouted.

While distracted, this left him wide open for a pounce attack by the new Hunter beast. Fortunately for him, the reptilian giant was uninterested in harming him as it had its sights set on one of the Sangheili members instead, mainly Kh'rue Naskar.

Kh'rue laid eyes on the beast and turned to face it. The new Hunter possessed velocity movement that surpassed its regular green-skinned kind and it pounced and knocked the alien off his feet and both were now struggling for domination over the other. Another fact of the new monster was that its strength and muscle mass was enhanced.

"Uh, guys . . ." Jamie said after killing the last of the monsters and seeing the action. The group members directed their attention to the non-human street fight going on between the Sangheili soldier and the advanced Hunter beast.

The UNSC folks wanted to lend a hand to Kh'rue, but the other Elites held them back.

"Kh'rue sometimes prefers to handle tasks like this on his own unless he calls for assistance." Ha'mak explained. The group allowed the fight to resumed without interference.

The new Hunter was kicked off of its armored opponent and slammed into an abandoned motorcycle. Getting up, it deeply inhaled, opened its mouth and roared so loud, it blew back discarded papers, trash cans, bottles, and even a car with such power, but not Kh'rue himself who managed to withstand the powerful shriek. A beer bottle broke into pieces when it struck his left leg and he quickly wiped it off. He shook his balled-up hands and his dual energy daggers formed around them. He then charged at the reptile and it did the same.

The B.O.W planned to grab and strike the alien warrior with its large claws. Kh'rue didn't bother to counter as he neared his target and quickly and strongly jammed his glowing-hot plasma blades right into the Hunter's stomach section. The reptilian monster wailed in great, burning agonizing pain as Kh'rue began to hoist it up from the ground. It tried to wiggle itself loose by slapping at him but no avail. Its feet dangled inches below the street pavement.

All eyes glared at the combatants, the Elites with pride and the marines with shock and awe, as Kh'rue flipped the mutant reptile over his head and onto the ground behind him. The fight didn't end there yet as Kh'rue then leaped to the fallen creature and plunged his energy daggers into its body several times like a vicious animal.

The assault ceased at the sixth stab and Kh'rue deactivated his daggers and stood back as he and his teammates watched the vanquished Hunter squirm and die.

Kh'rue received praise for his victory as he rejoined the group. He wiped off some of the Hunter's blood which splattered on his armor during the death match.

"Outstanding combat superiority, Kh'rue." Ha'mak said. "But do not allow it to shield your focus, there are more obstacles and earth abominations to overcome ahead."

Kh'rue nodded in understanding and they returned to their vehicles and drove onward. When it came to close quarters combat, Kh'rue was known to be very physical at times, just as he had demonstrated with the dead Hunter seconds ago.

Soon after, they found on the street what they thought was a bomb at first before realizing the item in question was just an earth-born object known as a camcorder. The group stopped and stared as Raymond once again exited his seat and picked up the camera for examination.

"What is that he is holding?" E'mal asked.

"It's called a camcorder, sometimes called a camera." Kristine explained as best as she could. "In this age, our people used them to record things for personal, recreational and business purposes, kinda like how we do with hologram technology. But here, recordings were stored on objects called cassette tapes, which were later succeeded by a little something called Digital Video Discs or 'DVD's for short, in the next century and so on."

Camcorders and cassettes were one of those "lost to the ages" Earth artifacts to people in the future. The reason behind her knowledge of the camcorder device was because she used to spend some of her free time reading up on past technology as she had a thing for past gadgets. Good thing too because the team was going to need her "know-how" on modern-day stuff for their stay here as they were so adjusted to future tech.

Unable to figure out how the device worked, Raymond asked anyone if they knew how to use it and Kristine volunteered for the task. She opened the section of the camcorder that held a cassette tape and actually found one still inside.

Learning quickly that the camera had only three double-A batteries inside its battery slot and required one more, the team was asked to search for any more batteries in the nearby stores. Kh'rue found one laying on the sidewalk near a dried pool of blood and snatched it up and gave it to her who then inserted the battery with the rest and the camcorder suddenly beeped, causing the group to reflexively ready their weapons and later lower them upon the realization that the beep noise was part of the machine's function.

Remembering how camcorders worked, Kristine looked for the machine's "play" button and pressed it and the camera began working. Much to their dismay, it only showed blank footage. Kristine pressed the camera's fast-forward button and more unused footage rolled by. Frustrated by this, she then pressed the "Rewind" button and the camera did its work of reversing the cassette's content until the beginning was reached. The "play" button was pressed again and this time the tape played what they were wanting to see.

The camcorder's screen platform revealed what went on in Raccoon City days before the outbreak.

The first part of the footage revealed two men dressed as scientists, one was tall and skinny and the other was short and wearing glasses. Both were bickering over something in the confinement of a multiple story apartment building. An unseen individual (presumably the camera's original owner and/or apartment resident) filmed the whole thing in silence. Other people living in the same housing quarters were watching with mixed expressions on their faces.

"You are strictly forbidden from sitting in my designated couch spot no matter what! It's part of the Roommate Agreement you signed when you moved in!" said the tall scientist.

"Aw, screw the Roommate Agreement!" said the short scientist.

"No, you don't screw the Roommate Agreement, the Roommate Agreement screws _you_!" the tall scientist said in a raised tone.

Kristine pressed the camera's fast-forward button to skip the scene, uninterested in that.

Soon another scene in the same tape showed a few people riding in a school bus. They looked like school students and they were all talking to one another. The person driving the entire bus was a fat, elderly woman with bushy brown hair and on her head nesting in her hair was a small bird which appeared to be fake.

"Everyone sit down and shut up back there!" she screamed to the passengers and they immediately obeyed the order. Somebody had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed that day.

"Ah, go to hell, ya fat bitch!" someone in the footage said in a hushed tone of voice.

"What did you say!?" the driver demanded after turning her head to glare angrily at the one who insulted her.

"I said I have a bad itch!" the student lied.

The old driver calmly accepted the lie and returned to her driving duties.

Alex, Jamie and Kristine couldn't help but laugh at that. Raymond and the Elites didn't join in as they weren't much into humor and obtained serious personalities.

This was also skipped until they finally got to what they sought in the tape.

What they were now seeing in that very camera was not a pretty sight at all.

In the footage, people of the city's local law enforcement, along with a "S.W.A.T." team force, stepped out of their vehicles after parking them in the form of a barricade to block off a swarm of zombified citizens who were seen walking and limping toward the two groups.

The combined forces of the Raccoon City police and the S.W.A.T. team raised their weapons consisting of pistols, shotguns and automatic weapons and fired at the crowd. A few of the zombies went down, but that was not enough to stop them as the infected soon overpowered, killed and consumed the authority figures within minutes. Several uninfected civilians ran amok in panic. Most of them were attacked and devoured by the ungodly creatures.

The entire scenario was like an all-you-can-eat buffet, almost all of Raccoon City's population fell victim to the zombie disaster.

The unidentified camera operator, who may or may not be the same person who filmed the two previous scenes, caught the hellish action as best as possible, quietly gasping and shuddering. Then a moaning sound was heard from behind. The camera person turned around and witnessed a gang of starving zombies approaching with their hands outstretched and ran for it. The camera, while still rolling, shook and rattled as its frightened owner kept running.

It wasn't very long before the individual became boxed into a dead-end alley corner by the hungry zombies who were now closing in for the kill. The person screamed for help in a voice that sounded female, telling the observing team that the trapped citizen was a woman. Nobody came to her rescue and she was soon swarmed, killed and eaten like everybody else. The camera was tossed far aside during the cannibalistic assault and the footage ended there. Now the team knew why the camera was absent of one battery until both items were reunited: said battery was chucked out after the camera crashed to the ground.

The marines were very shocked at the footage. It was going to remain in their heads for a long, long time even if they escape the present era. It reminded Jamie of that zombie film she spoke of earlier. If they returned to the 26th century in one piece, viewing zombie flicks would never be the same for any of them ever again. The Elites didn't know what to say about this. Seeing infected humans chase and eat other humans like that in the footage was pretty much a disturbing sight for them. It was just as disturbing as the Flood creatures they heard so much about before.

The camera's batteries expired and the camera shut down for good and Kristine tossed the device away as it was no longer useful and left the scene.

Sometime later, an unexpected low-rumbling noise was produced among them. They prepared to combat the source only to instantly learn that it was not a sound of hostility, but the sound of hunger and it was coming from Alex who clutched at his stomach in embarrassment. It was a bit weird to be in need of food after viewing a recording of cannibalistic monsters savagely feeding on the town's former population just two minutes ago.

"Aw, crud. It's been hours since I last chowed down." he said. He wasn't the only one with the need to feed. The entire group was getting hungry too and, despite the situation around them, a time to stop for a meal break was a go.

It was a good thing they brought along several MRE's (Meal, Ready-To-Eat) with them before coming to Raccoon City. The only problem was that they had enough to last each of them only one day. After eating their rations, they'd have to stock up on local food and water supplies later on to last longer until they can finally leave.

The field rations that the three Elites carried differed from the ones humans used, although sometimes back aboard the ship, the aliens had their share of human foods as well. One memory Ha'mak had from his time on the ship was of one UNSC marine and an Elite, dressed in Minor armor, serving spicy food samples of each others' native dishes to test their own resistance to the flavors. Ha'mak was among the crowd of people who gathered to observe the moment. The marine member had a loaded tray of Sanghelios-born foods, which were said by other Elites aboard to be the spiciest to their people and the Minor Sangheili had a tray filled with earth-born spice foods such as hot sauce, red and green chili peppers, wasabi and pico de gallo samples and more. While the Elite consumed his dish without any negative reactions to the earth foods, his competitor on the other hand regretted consuming the extraterrestrial dish and had to consume so much ice-cold water, it resulted in both brain freeze and hysterical laughter from everyone who watched. Ha'mak was the only one who did not partake in the laughter as he was silently embarrassed of this and thought _The poor human was warned of his choices and yet he accepted the consequences of devouring it._

An empty laundromat building was found and the crew decided to settle down inside to avoid attracting more monsters.

After entering, they sat or kneeled themselves down, removed their ration items and were about to start preparing their meals when they suddenly heard the unexpected sound of machine gun fire. It sounded like it came a mile away from their current position.

Placing their activity aside, the survivors quickly dropped their rations, picked up their weapons and went to investigate.

They came across a street with a large junkyard complex on one side fitted with barbed wire fences and stacks of garbage and discarded cars inside. The marines took refuge behind a toppled-over ice cream truck while the Sangheilis cloaked themselves and stood their ground when a group of about fifteen people were seen walking out of the junkyard's entrance. These unknown folks were dressed in black, military clothing and wore gas masks over their faces. They were armed with SIG 552 guns, and handguns known as "Lightning Hawk" pistols and wore bandoliers on their waists and shoulders that carried extra ammo clips and grenades. None of them suspected the stranded space crew spying on their activities.

With them were three others who were currently being dragged out of the yard by their legs and arms by the mysterious people. Those individuals appeared to be soldiers too, but their uniforms differed from what the ones escorting them out donned. Looking carefully, the concealed marines saw that those three were already dead to begin with as there were bleeding bullet wounds on their bodies and heads. None of the hidden survivors were unsure of whether or not those people died as zombies or as humans.

As the marines observed the situation while hidden, another random gunshot was fired and this time it was directed at them. The bullet, fired by a unseen sniper from one of the buildings nearby, barely missed and ricocheted off the truck's underside. That action, coupled with the surprising yelps of the targeted marine unit afterwards, caused the entire fleet of unknown soldiers to turn and aim their weapons at them.

"Hold your fire! We're not infected!" Raymond said to them after popping out of his hiding spot. He assumed that he and his comrades were mistaken for zombies and that things can be cleared up.

His attempts at reasoning with the locals failed as the masked soldiers started shooting at him and the marine crew just like that. Clearly, this was no misunderstanding.

Out of instinct, the survivors dove back behind the very same dessert truck.

"We just told those assholes we weren't monsters and and they're shooting at us anyway! What the hell's wrong with them?!" Jamie screamed angrily.

Having no choice, the marines responded by returning fire. One of them was shot in the arm, but that person resumed firing despite the injury.

To help out, the Elites deactivated their cloaking modes, whipped out their swords and daggers and charged directly at the hostile humans, unscathed by the bullets deflecting off their armor and energy shields as they moved in. Although the enemy soldiers in black weren't zombies, or their mortal enemies the Brutes, the Elites still had to fulfill their duty of protecting the team at all costs, even if it meant putting their vow of never killing humans aside for now.

The marine members stopped shooting to avoid a friendly fire incident with the armored aliens and allowed them to handle this.

Ha'mak jumped in front of one soldier who's weapon got jammed and panicked. The alien raised his energy sword and cut off one of the man's arms before he can switch to his pistol and strongly punched the human so hard, it not only broke a rib in his body, it also practically sent him flying several feet backwards, knocking his gas mask off as well. The harmed soldier landed right into one of the razor-wire fences and shouted in agonizing pain, from both his arm and rib injuries and from coming into contact with the barbs. He struggled to free himself from the wire entangling him all over. One of the wires wrapped around his bare neck during the struggle and after one quick jerk in an effort to move, the razor barbs of that same wire tore into his unprotected neck and pierced his jugular vein, causing the wounded soldier to bleed to death very quickly. Although Ha'mak trapped him there, the person technically died by his own hand.

E'mal got up close to his own target and seized the soldier by the left arm and wrist, making the foe drop his gun. The alien held him up high above the ground, reared his plasma sword back and plunged it into the soldier's midsection and moved the blade into him further up to his head and cut it and the body wide open. He let the killed opponent fall to the ground.

The entire fleet of soldiers was too distracted by the powerful Sangheilis to notice the UNSC members pitching in, claiming their fair share of kills. Raymond grabbed for his own sniper rifle, peeked through its scope while activating its thermal vision mode and eventually discovered the shooter responsible for blowing their cover and fatally shot the enemy gunman right before it could become the other way around.

Kh'rue beheaded one soldier who tried to surprise attack him from behind and walked up to another who just remained standing in place while wildly firing his rifle at the unflinching extraterrestrial warrior and when Kh'rue got near, he snatched the weapon from the foe's hands and broke it in two like a stick. When the soldier withdrew his pistol and threatened Kh'rue with it, he simply placed one hand over it and, instead of confiscating it like with the previous weapon, Kh'rue slowly crushed it in his grip with his intense strength like a soda can. Bits and pieces of metal and bullets sprinkled from his hand, forcing the enemy human to release his hands on the crushed handgun.

Completely taken aback at what the armored alien just did to his only two firearms, the soldier then removed his combat knife and swiped it at the Elite's head with utter fierceness. The blade simply sparked against Kh'rue's armor and shields and disintegrated from its handle like butter.

"What . . . the hell _are_ you?!" the masked human asked fearfully while taking small steps backward and dropping his useless knife handle, afraid of the giant space alien warrior.

Growing weary of this enemy human's attempts at harming him, Kh'rue simply plucked the baffled person by the leg and began slamming him around fiercely like a ragdoll.

The harsh beat down lasted for only five seconds and soon after, the defeated agent was now badly injured with a few broken bones and was going into shock which Kh'rue could simply tell with or without the soldier's mask on. He was heard coughing horribly and desperately wheezing for breath before finally expiring. The ground he was pummeled upon was now a large pothole as if a small meteorite struck the spot.

More soldiers from within the junkyard premises appeared and engaged the 26th century team. They too were killed via gunfire, slashing and brutal hand-to-hand tactics.

After the conflict ended, the group approached the dead troops with the exception of the dead sniper from far away.

_What have we done?_ E'mal thought after feeling that he, Kh'rue and Ha'mak breached the truce humans and Elites have held for decades after the Human-Covenant War's conclusion. For a while guilt swept over them like with the zombies when they came, it was natural to feel like that for a moment after completing a task one was not accustomed to doing, but they had to remember the fact that these dead humans were not like the UNSC, they tried to kill them upon their discovery and so the group simply acted defensively.

"Who are these idiots and why'd they try to kill us even after telling them that we weren't one of those monsters?" Jamie asked. All heads turned to Alex, knowing he might have answers on the situation which he did.

Alex approached one corpse and carefully inspected it for clues. He turned it over and saw an umbrella-like symbol patch stitched on the back and shoulder areas of the dead man's uniform. Familiarity of the symbols sparked his memory.

Alex proceeded to give an answer.

"These people are a paramilitary black ops unit who work for the Umbrella Corporation. They're called 'Umbrella Security Service' or 'U.S.S. for short. When this zombie stuff happened, Umbrella sent these pricks in to wipe out all proof of the company's involvement by any means necessary. And by 'wipe out all proof', I mean both creatures _and _survivors, especially R.P.D police officers on the last part. To put it simply: anyone else roaming around clean of infection and not with them was considered a key witness of the incident and are Umbrella's ultimate downfall. The U.S.S. would fill any survivors they see full of holes without mercy like a mob hit."

Hearing of the U.S.S. and their mission sounded like a version of the Nazi's "Final Solution" objective from the second world war in the early half of the 20th century. However, it still didn't explain who the other human soldiers were, the ones that were already deceased by the time both teams met and clashed.

"What about them?" Ha'mak asked while pointing to the corpses in question.

Alex approached the bodies and examined them.

"These guys are from a military branch opposite of the U.S.S. called 'Spec Ops Field Unit' or 'Spec Ops'. Like the U.S.S., they too were deployed here to combat Umbrella's mess, but unlike them, the Spec Ops' job was to collect any evidence, in the form of survivors and leftover virus samples, to help with their task of busting Umbrella and exposing their wicked deeds."

He also went on to inform them about two groups of six people within the two rival units known as "Echo Six" and "Wolfpack" and how dangerous each team was to the other.

The Elites' guilt trip eased a little after learning that the U.S.S. agents they killed were bad news from the start and therefore shouldn't count against the inter-species truce.

After he finished explaining, a distant explosion suddenly rocked the sky far from their position and it grabbed their attention. The Elites used their zooming vision for a better view while Jamie got out her binoculars and learned it was a helicopter that appeared to have been shot down. A loud roaring was heard soon after and it sure sounded larger and menacing than any B.O.W. the team fought with tonight.

Wondering what it could possibly be, the team decided to leave and check it out. While retreating to their vehicles, they remembered about the rations they dropped earlier and fetched them.

It was during this time that a static noise suddenly emerged from a radio belonging to one of the dead U.S.S. soldiers and a distorted voice spoke. Holding off on their departure plan, the crew decided to listen in first.

"Calling all U.S.S. troops. This is Command speaking. This message is to inform you all that the B.O.W., code named 'Nemesis', just located another S.T.A.R.S. member by the name of Jill Valentine and has appeared to have completed its mission of eliminating her along with that pathetic UBCS member aiding her. Everyone report in, over."

The team remained silent and didn't do anything about it as other voices soon spoke up.

"This is Team A reporting from the city's cemetery. Copy that, Command."

"Team B here reporting from Raccoon General Hospital. We read you, Command. The S.T.A.R.S bitch had it coming!"

"Team C reporting from City Hall. Loud and clear, Command."

After a moment of silence, the voice calling itself "Command" spoke again. "Team D, why are you late with your status reports?"

Once again, the group listened in, curiosity written in their minds. They were getting the feeling that the group of Umbrella agents they just defeated were whom the voice was referring to.

"Team D, what's going on? Respond!" The voice on the other line was starting to sound irritable.

The survivors had a hunch of what was going to happen next.

"All communications with Team D have ceased. Send out a search team to the Raccoon City junkyard immediately! That's an order!"

"Roger that! Out!" said another voice.

After that was said, the radio silenced.

The standing crew knew that company was on its way here shortly.

"Now would be a very good time to haul ass outta here before more Umbrella people show up!" Alex said.

"Should we remain here and fight them off too?" Kh'rue asked.

"No, I think we'd better avoid another confrontation with them for now. Besides, we're only here to gather supplies to last us till takeoff, not to cause trouble. That's the last thing we need during our stay here." Raymond said.

Agreeing with that, the survivors scrambled to their respective vehicles and drove away. The slain U.S.S. and Spec Ops soldiers laid in full view all over the junkyard entrance. Pretty soon, zombies stumbled by and began devouring the bodies.

* * *

**At the zoo . . .**

* * *

The pack of Brutes ventured on throughout the Raccoon City Zoo. Any infected B.O.W that attacked them was killed fiercely.

As of tonight, they seriously had no idea where they were going and frankly, they did not care. All they desired was to locate and kill any survivors from the UNSC-affiliated ship as well as find a way off the planet they believed to be the earth of the 26th century.

_Clearly, all of earth's inhabitants have gone mad!_ Lacertosus thought after killing another zombie by tearing off its head and shoving it into its own chest.

Upon reaching another animal habitat pathway, two infected pandas on one side of the group and three monkeys on the other side roared and screeched madly while banging on the bars of their cages, desperately trying to break out to attack the touring Jiralhanae squad. All that screaming was giving them a headache.

"Silence, filthy earth vermin!" Bracktanus yelled and he raised his Brute Shot and ended the altered lives of the infected zoo animals.

They found and entered place meant for housing reptilian animals such as snakes, lizards, a few komodo dragons and iguanas. Some of the farm's residents were like the rest of the animals and humans: dead and undead.

As they searched the habitat, a mutated animal known to humans as a Gila monster, dropped from the ceiling and hissed aggressively at the Brutes.

Infestus stepped in to handle the zombified animal. He knocked it back when it leaped for him and pressed his right foot down on its back, gripped its head with both hands and, with his powerful strength, Infestus forcefully applied strong and painful pressure until blood leaked from its eyes and mouth. It screeched violently until its head and skull was fractured and was dead. The team exited the reptile exhibit, not bothering to waste their time in fighting the crazed animals.

A loud buzzing noise filled the air and startled the wandering Jiralhanae gang. A human voice was played through unseen speakers throughout the zoo. Although the Brutes mistook it for a live human, it was, in fact, a recording.

"Welcome to the wondrous Raccoon City Zoo! Home to the world's greatest animals!" said the voice recording. "Please feel free to explore the entire zoo park for as long as you desire. We have here, magnificent and friendly tropical birds, elephants, giraffes, rhinoceros, zebras, big cats, snakes, lizards, and primate animals such as monkeys, apes, gorillas and orangutans who just love human company! And for those who have a love for aquatic animals, head over to our "Water World" section and feast your eyes on our oceanic residents such as whales, fish, sea stars, jellyfish, and more! For those who laugh in the face of danger, we also house alligators, crocodiles, piranhas, electric eels, poisonous fish, and even the oldest and most frightening predator of the seven seas: sharks! We carry sharks that you can touch . . . and sharks that you _can't_! For all you youngsters out there, we also have a petting zoo available filled with the most adorable animals you've ever seen such as baby lambs, horses, tiger and lion cubs and so much more! Thank you all for choosing to visit the Raccoon City Zoo and we hope you enjoy your stay and for those who are leaving, we hope you come again soon!"

The pre-recorded voice ceased speaking after that, much to the Brutes' amusement. Then it replayed its message, much to their annoyance. A minute later, the voice died out and remained that way for good.

Minutes later, they all stumbled into a place with a giant pool in the background. It was modeled after a modern earth swamp bayou and a sign above their heads read "Gator Park". At the bottom it read, "Enter at your own risk!" and "Please do NOT attempt to feed alligators!", it also had a censorship logo painted over an image of a human reaching a hand into a tank with an alligator animal about to take a bite, showing the consequences one may have to deal with should the latter rule be broken.

Not knowing what alligators were and not caring, the Brutes entered the exhibit anyway with the assumption that if one were to show up and delay them of their quest, it would surely be dead by their hands.

Additional human zombies were found in the arena's bleacher seats and were instantly slain as the Brutes passed by unafraid of them.

While traveling around the arena, a monstrous creature the size of a bus, which also happened to be one of the arena's main inhabitants, poked its head from within the stadium's pool and nearly clamped its deadly, massive jaws onto the Brute member who was walking far behind the group which was Volatus.

He dodged quickly and he and the team prepared to shoot at the beast. but it had already submerged back into its watery home.

"What creature could that possibly be?" Infestus asked aloud. Nobody tried to even guess because, as stated before, they knew very little about earth's animal species.

Just then the alligator resurfaced and this time, another of its kind joined it, this one was missing its right eye and had a gashing scar streaked across where the eye once was. The two giants then broke out of the enormous glass tank, spilling water and shattered glass pieces everywhere, and hissed and roared at the Jiralhanae team. Both animals looked mighty hungry.

The Brutes readied their weapons.

"Dispose of these wretched abominations!" Lacertosus ordered.

The team opened fire on the starving reptile behemoths. Blood and plasma were spilled during the double confrontation.

Bracktanus and Volatus sidestepped as one of the gators, the one with both eyes, lunged its massive mouth at them sideways and missed.

Well, it missed Volatus, but it managed to clutch Bracktanus in its toothy grip. Its jaws were clamped around his waist, denying Bracktanus access to his weapons.

Volatus was about to help kill the alligator when more zombies arrived and joined in on the monster party. Now the Brute team had more creatures to keep them busy than ever, these two were on their own for now.

The alligator containing Bracktanus in its jaws tried to eat him, but it couldn't because the Brute was now pushing its struggling jaws away with his hands. The creature strained to out-muscle its enemy, but it was no match for the Jiralhanae's powerful strength.

When it tried wrapping its tongue around Bracktanus, he released his defying grip while quickly moving himself out of harm's way and the alligator's mouth instantly snapped shut, some of its teeth chipped off and its tongue wound up injured and bleeding, making it screech in pain.

To end the fight, Bracktanus walked to the battered, four-legged monster who was now trying to retreat but was caught when Bracktanus yanked it back by its tail. He then hopped on top of its upper back and placed both hands on the tip of its mouth and fiercely began to pry it open like a clam. Again, the infected giant protested wildly, but the Brute soldier wouldn't allow it and shot the beast in the face a couple of times until he succeeded with his task. Then he called for Volatus and told him to throw a plasma grenade inside its throat right now while he kept the animal's jaws wide open, which he did, and with that done, Bracktanus jumped off the animal and he and Volatus both stood back and shielded themselves with their hands and arms.

Within two seconds, the giant reptile suddenly exploded from the inside out. Most of its entrails such as blood, organs, intestines, bones, and whatever it fed on hours ago, showered everywhere, blanketing the Brutes and its own body. It was very disgusting indeed.

One mutant alligator down, one more to go. Volatus and Bracktanus turned their attention to the rest of the situation at hand.

The final alligator was already being handled by Lacertosus who insisted that he deal with it independently while ordering the team to get rid of the other "guests" to which they went to doing immediately.

Lacertosus swung his powerful gravity-defying mallet at his roaring foe, managing to knock out a few of its teeth and draw blood from these attacks.

Angered, the overgrown animal turned around and swung its large tail at the Chieftain and succeeded in striking him.

The Brute pack leader was knocked back by the tenacious, tail slap and crash into an empty cage that once housed the platypus species.

Now he was angrier than ever. Lacertosus ripped his way out of the cage's bars, not bothering to use the "new" entrance made by him, and jumped high enough to make an impact landing on the alligator's back and resumed attacking the undead reptile with his gravity hammer, breaking a bone or two in its body.

The crazed alligator attempted to fling Lacertosus off its back, but it couldn't move its legs, or any part of its lower body at all. Thanks to Lacertosus' vicious mallet assault, the titanic animal was now paralyzed from the waist-down, making it a sitting duck, or in this case, a sitting gator. It still maintained movement over its upper body, but that wasn't going to be enough to survive against the Brutes.

It struggled and struggled to move its legs and tail, but no luck at all.

With an evil grin spread across his face, Lacertosus closed in for the kill. After terminating the other zoo monsters, the Brutes stood back and watched.

Lacertosus slowly approached the front of the out-of-control creature, allowing his hammer weapon to drag across the zoo grounds as he walked. When the creature saw the Brute inching close, it lunged itself forward with its two front legs and quickly snapped its salivating jaws at him and missed. The Jiralhanae leader didn't bother to flinch or yelp. He simply laughed at the reptile's misfortune.

Lacertosus gripped his hammer in both hands and raised it high above his head and before the half-dead animal could try attacking again, Lacertosus brought the hammer down over its head and face.

One single strike was all it took to kill the gigantic zoo animal. The results were the same as with how Bracktanus and Volatus handled the first alligator and how a certain survivor in another part of the city dealt with one in the sewers: Bloody and freakish.

Lacertosus scoffed after his small victory and began walking away with his soldiers following him.

Additional places in the zoo were explored such as a dining area, a gift shop, an amphitheater similar to the "Gator World" attraction they were just at, only this one formerly put on spectacular whale shows. The body of an Orca, better known to earthlings as "killer whales", was seen floating lifelessly in the arena's main tank which was full of algae-infected water. It looked like it had died from either starvation or from the algae water rather than from infection by the T-Virus as no bite or scratch marks were seen on it.

A new kind of zoo local briefly showed up from behind an abandoned juice bar. It was a hyena and it wasn't alone; seven more popped out from the same refreshment booth and were now growling menacingly like the Cerberus dogs. Like the infected canines, these creatures were also missing parts of their fur and skin. Some had legs with the bone showing. Their eyes were pale as the moon and two were void of their lower jawbones, but these small handicaps didn't stop them from wanting to rumble with the deadly space aliens.

Joining them was a chubby-looking panda bear. The panda was missing part of it left arm and the right half of its face was gone as if something tore it off before or after infection. Its bare, crimson-colored eyes glared at the Brutes in an evil fashion.

Annoyed at having to fight their way through more virus animals, the Brutes charged for the hyena pack with them doing the same, but at a speed that was faster than the dogs.

Infestus and Volactius made a grab for one of the hyenas without lower jaws who made a leap for them and the two brutally killed it by gripping all four of its limbs in both hands each and violently tore the undead animal apart in no later than five seconds. Almost all of its insides spilled out of the dismembered body and onto the ground along on its killers when they threw away the halves of the dead creature without a care in the world.

The panda tackled Lacertosus and knocked him over a hat and t-shirt novelty item cart, making him drop his hammer and started clawing at him and trying to bite him. Lacertosus latched his right hand onto the throat of the hostile panda and propped it up from the ground, using the ensnared animal to club an oncoming hyena away before reclaiming his melee weapon and turning his full attention to the arctic bear.

"Begone with you!" he roared and tossed the panda up in the air. Grabbing his hammer with both hands, Lacertosus raised it just as the infected panda was falling back down and he swung the weapon like a baseball bat and sent the panda flying far away from the battle site and probably out of the zoo as it.

Very soon, all of the bloodthirsty hyenas were decimated. Like always, blood and guts were all over the place.

That was one of the many reasons to why these primate-like warriors were nicknamed "Brutes" by the humans and sometimes the Sangheilis.

At long last, the Brutes had found a way out of the zoo and it led them back on the city streets, feeling good to finally be free of that dreadful zoo.

When they escaped, they saw a familiar species within their view. It was a group of ten humans backing out of a fire station building and shooting at more zombies that were pursuing them, some of those zombies were set aflame. The defending humans were dressed like soldiers, but they weren't wearing the same UNSC uniforms their old enemies wore. These people wore clothing that said "Spec-Ops" with insignia's carved in and they carried firearms that differed in appearance from that of the UNSC's.

The Brutes didn't recognize any of them as the people they battled aboard the human space vessel and right now they didn't care. Another fact about the situation here was that no Sangheilis were around assisting the human group. These people may not be the space marines they wanted to destroy, but the Brutes decided to just wreak havoc among these new humans anyway. It would be like blowing off some steam for them.

After killing the last of the zombies, the Spec-Ops soldiers were about to take a break when one member turned and spotted the Jiralhanae soldiers walking toward them, cracking their knuckles and smiling evilly.

Mistaking them for B.O.W.'s, that person yelled "Incoming!" and the humans stood back up after sitting down, gathered their weapons and began shooting at the Brutes.

_Such weak weaponry!_ Lacertosus thought as the bullets from their guns simply bounced off their body armor and attacked them all with glee.

The first of the Spec Ops troops was killed by Infestus when he dove his knife into that person's chest and viciously cut him open, yanked the victim's heart organ out while crushing it in the same hand, and placed his Mauler into the member's head and pulled the trigger, resulting in a mini shower of bone and blood.

Volactius and Volatus whipped out their Plasma Rifles and shot at some of the human soldiers. One had his leg disintegrated upon contact with the hot plasma energy and the other had a grenade on his belt shot at, causing it and all other grenades to explode at the same time. The damage caused other nearby soldiers to be blown back in various places.

Bracktanus was shot at from behind by a soldier armed with a pump-action shotgun. The blast caused slight distortion on his armor shields, but it held. The target continued firing until the weapon depleted itself of ammo and that's when Bracktanus retaliated by gripping the man's throat and, with a single upward thrust of his arm, the human's head and spinal column was completely ripped off the body. Bracktanus kicked away the body, stared at the dismembered head for a second and tossed it away.

As for Lacertosus, he was startled by a grenade a Spec Ops member hurled at him and it went off in front of him, sparking his shields. In response, he picked up his hammer and began to swing it around like a madman, not caring who or what it struck. One human trooper was hit and slammed hard against a street lamp pole and died upon impact.

His gravity hammer managed to whack a couple of nearby parked cars and a mailbox and caused them to fly back and crash very loudly next to several more Spec Ops soldiers.

"Holy crap! What kind of fucking B.O.W.'s are these!?" a member was heard saying during the battle, believing that the Brutes were another one of Umbrella's creations.

"You dare mistake us for those flesh-hungry beings?!" Lacertosus bellowed after hearing that statement. It was there that he guessed that the term, "B.O.W.", referred to the zombies and other monsters they've been fighting and killing all night long. Apparently, he guessed correctly and being addressed as a virus creature greatly irritated the Jiralhanaes, mostly their leader. "You humans shall all learn respect!"

One Spec Ops member, who was the only one who survived the car incident and now had a fracture in his right leg, slowly stood up with some difficulty and limped his way quietly toward an unused Humvee of theirs that was equipped with a 50-caliber machine gun turret on top. He climbed aboard, trying his best not to yell from the horrendous pain in his leg, grabbed at the turret's controls, took aim at the hostile Brutes and squeezed the trigger.

The unsuspecting Brutes growled in surprise as the machine gun's bullets struck them faster and harder than regular human guns. While they were hit several times, their energy shields absorbed the damage they would have suffered were it not for the protective technology. Unable to stand it anymore, Lacertosus took action against the human target with Bracktanus joining him.

The two dashed toward the Humvee and leaped for it. Bracktanaus landed behind the vehicle while Lacertosus landed on top. The soldier kept firing despite his tactic being useless now as he was surrounded. Bracktanus yanked the panicking soldier away from the gun turret and killed him by crushing him underneath his feet while Lacertosus dropped his hammer, placed his large, furry hands on the sides of the turret gun which was now malfunctioning and operating on its own, and proceeded to tear it off which he managed to do. Yelling at first from the strain, the Chieftain then threw the dismounted machine gun turret away, it crashed into another car far away from them and exploded. He got off the Humvee, reached for his hammer and used it to ferociously demolish the unmanned military vehicle until it was now a big scrap pile.

Pretty soon after every human within range was terminated, the Brutes stood where they were, taking a pause to soak in the destruction they had caused.

"That felt marvelous!" Infestus said aloud with pride after putting his weapons away.

"Indeed it was." Volactius said.

They turned to their leader who just stood where he was, his gravity hammer placed on his back strap.

Volactus approached Lacertosus and asked if something was wrong with him to which he said he was fine. To him, it felt good to kill uninfected humans again, even if they weren't part of the UNSC crew. Now if only the Sangheilis were around, then it would be an all-out brawl.

Lacertosus looked at them, ordered the team to move out and began walking away from the zoo grounds as he had enough of dealing with undead animals and the rest of the Brutes copied him, feeling what he felt.

Unknown to them, the Spec Ops soldiers would not be the only non-infected humans the Jiralhanae crew would encounter throughout Raccoon City.

Neither of them realized during that time that they had completely forgotten about their vehicles which remained parked way back in front of the zoo's entrance.

* * *

**Again, sorry for taking long to post this. The hard work I endured from moving gave me writer's block for a few weeks which later escalated into a month and a half, plus I had to wait until I got new internet service to resume writing. It shut down once, but later returned.**

**Everything you see in this chapter may not be much and I'm not sure if its a little off, but it's all I can come up with. I tried thinking up ways to better it, but no. If you want,**** think of it as a mere warm-up for the Halo and Resident Evil military teams who are sure to cause more chaos and bloodshed with each other momentarily. **

**Now that the Halo groups have met and battled the U.S.S./Spec Ops teams, it's gonna get messy next time.  
**

**As the ending for the Elite/UNSC side suggests, they are going to meet up with Jill and Carlos soon enough and will work alongside them until it's bomb away for Raccoon City. That's right, the RE3 section of the tale is close to being told just as soon as I finish with the story's RE2 part.**

**In case you were wondering, some of the footage from the camera scene is part of the intro from RE3 written in first-person view(sorta), the other scenes in that same part were just random joke ideas that I wanted to get out of my head after watching T.V. **

**Also, the way Kh'rue defeated one of the U.S.S. members was inspired from a scene in the Avengers movie. I couldn't help but post that as well.**

**One more thing: if this story goes well to the end, perhaps I'll cook up a sequel . . . with frosting on top!**

**Thanks for continuing to read my story and sticking with it.**


	11. Unfortunately I Like Crazy

**I see some of you enjoyed the dual street fight in the last chapter. I was starting to worry that I've lost my touch. **

**While the Elites, Marines and Brutes are making themselves at home with the city's dangers, let's check in on Leon, Claire, Sherry, Ada, and their two armored bodyguards.**

**To those who have been begging for Wolfpack to make an appearance in the story, it will happen here. When, you ask? *****in Napoleon Dynamite voice* Whenever I frickin' feel like it, GOSH! *jerks head to side***

**Again, elements from Darkside Chronicles and ORC will be mixed here. They are (sorta) part of the RE2/3 storyline, after all.**

**I also withdrew the chapter, as I usually do, to make a few changes that I intended to do before but didn't have the time and forgot by then.**

**Here goes everything.**

* * *

**Side A . . . **

**P.S. the very beginning of this part takes place a few minutes before Claire and Thel's arrival.**

* * *

Leon Kennedy and John-117 explored further into the underground lab facility, constantly on alert for virus creatures that may be lurking around wanting to make a meal out of them or anyone else that may still be alive down here. The lab looked like something out of a sci-fi movie about Area 51. Their footsteps echoed throughout the massive area.

They arrived in a large place with three metal catwalk bridges that had colored striping on their floors. All of the bridges were connected to the room's center like a turntable. Up ahead on the bridge they were standing on were three zombies that were dressed in scientist uniforms and they shuffled toward them the moment they locked their pupil-absent eyes on the two. One of them had a broken arm with a chunk of flesh missing from its forearm area. The carriers were killed when Leon and John tossed them over the bridge, leaving them the only ones there now.

As they kept walking, Leon felt a wave of guilt wash over him for leaving Ada all alone in the security room. But it was for her own good. She was battered after all thanks to that "G" monster. He was hurt too, but her injury far surpassed his own.

They came to a corridor that said "B4F WEST AREA PASSAGE" on its wall and they soon came across two doors, one that said "SLEEPING QUARTERS A" and "SLEEPING QUARTERS B". Taking a random chance, they chose the "SLEEPING QUARTERS A" room.

What they found inside was a room with four bunk beds built into a wall on their right with a table and computer desktop monitor with two document papers laying on the side. Sharing the room with the officer and soldier were three new B.O.W.s that looked like man-sized, bipedal plant creatures. Their bodies were red and green, they had vines for arms and legs and they had large orange flower-shaped heads and they lacked eyes. Unknown to Leon, John and Cortana, these things were once dubbed by the lab's researchers as "Ivies".

A fourth plant creature was present in the room, but it was attached to a ventilation shaft on a wall and it was blocking the shaft entrance with its vines that flung endlessly. Near the plant creatures was a dead body of another researcher. The dead person looked pale and and skin was completely dry, telling the two that these walking plants must've killed him by draining out his bodily fluids and there were holes on the body to support the claim. Cortana figured that, after seeing the way that corpse looked, she'd probably feel nauseated and throw up as a reaction if she were a flesh-and-blood person.

The Ivies spotted the intruders and stood upright like a person would. They hissed fiercely, revealing their flower-like mandibles and teeth, and began moving toward the two, but at a much slower rate than zombies.

Leon raised his handgun and fired a few shots at the plant creatures while John began walking toward them without fear, his machete blade in hand and ready for action.

The Ivy plant the Master Chief was approaching raised its arms and launched its vine tendrils at him through its hands in an attempt to grab him and choke him to death. John gripped the vines in his hands and yanked them hard, dragging the plant creature along.

When it was in close proximity, John then raised his machete blade and slashed at the target's vines first before going for the B.O.W. itself. He stabbed it four times in a blur and kicked it away and it slammed into a wall.

The monster's wounds spurt out a dark-green substance that was supposedly its blood and it let out dying squeals until it was no more.

During the middle of John's short confrontation with the first Ivy, one of the other two plant monsters focused on Leon and discharged from its mouth a big blob of light-green colored saliva at Leon. Dropping his bag, the rookie cop instinctively dodged the substance and it splattered on a wall, dripped to the floor and started sizzling like boiling hot water. It appeared that the saliva of these foes was similar to the dangerous saliva spat by female zombies: acidic.

That same plant, joined by the third one, was moving toward Leon, the third plant raising its arms to attack the cop with its vines, when John stepped in and and slashed them both to death. One of the creatures spit some of its venomous saliva at him before being beheaded.

_Now I'll never have a salad without picturing those things in my head. _Leon thought after the plant B.O.W.s were dead. Well, not all of them. There was still the matter of the large plant blocking the room's ventilation shaft.

John wiped off the remaining, acidic gunk from himself and he and Leon focused on the final virus plant. Since there were no herbicidal products in the room to exterminate the creature with, they would have to perform that job themselves.

Leon looked around the room and found a flamethrower weapon on one of the room's bunkbeds. Getting something in his head, he went to fetch it. The idea he had in mind was to torch the plant's withering vines in order to gain access to wherever the shaft led to.

Like with his shotgun before, Leon could not fully lift the flamethrower because of the painful pressure the weapon's weight established upon his injury. The flamethrower was heavier than the shotgun and his bag combined, so Leon stepped aside and allowed his battle-hardened partner to wield the flamethrower and have a go at immolating the plant. To John, the flamethrower was like lifting a light weight.

The freakish plant screeched in pain the instant the weapon's flames touch it and soon, its vines, and body, were set alight.

John stopped his fiery assault and the plant's entire form was now completely charred and dissolved by the fires and the vent was free to use.

Before either one could proceed, John detected additional hostiles beyond the shaft and Leon heard it too. What they both heard were the familiar sounds of exhaled breathing, clicking movement and something wet and slimy along with a shriek.

Lickers. Just what the doctor ordered.

"Stay here, I'll handle them." John said to Leon. He agreed and stood back as John slid himself through the shaft's entrance and left Leon alone in the room with the corpses of the plant monsters and researcher.

Feeling uncomfortable about standing next to the dead scientist, Leon distanced himself further from the body in case it reanimated into a zombie. If that were to happen, he certainly didn't want the scientist trying to chomp on his leg like the first zombie he met did when he came to Raccoon City hours ago.

From the opposite end of the shaft, the sounds of roaring, stabbing, hitting and slamming reached Leon's ears. Then it all ceased.

Expecting John to climb back up the shaft and to the bunk room, Leon gasped when he heard the door behind him start to open without warning. He turned and trained his handgun on the intruder out of reflex, only to learn that it was just John. He lowered his gun in relief.

He asked John if he found anything of use back there and he shook his head.

As they headed out the door, Leon remembered the two documents sitting near the computer. He picked up one that said "Laboratory Security Manual", opened it and began to read it.

It said:

**Laboratory Security Manual-security measures in case of an emergency:**

**In the instance of an uncontainable bio-hazardous breakout, all security measures will be directed toward the underground transport facility.**

**In the instance that any abnormalities are detected among cargo in transit, all materials will automatically be transported from the loading zone to the designated high-speed train. At which point, all materials will be isolated and disposed of immediately.**

**In the instance of a Class 1 emergency, the entire train will be purged and disposed of without delay.**

**In the instance that the lab itself becomes contaminated, the northern most route currently used to transport materials to and from the facility will be designated as the emergency escape route. This route will secure passage to the relay point outside the city limits.**

**Disclosure about any information regarding research conducted here, or the existence of this facility, is strictly prohibited.**

**Since it is top priority to keep all research classified, escape access may be denied under certain extenuating circumstances.**

As soon as Leon finished with the document, he moved on to the paper entitled "User Registration".

**Temporary User Registration for the Culture Experiment Room.**

**User Name: "GUEST"**

**Password: None**

**Valid for 24 hours.**

Something told Leon that the information from the paper would be of use to them at an eventual point and they exited the room and returned to the catwalk balcony.

The blue striped bridge became their next path and they took it. The door at the end of the bridge opened in a vertical sliding motion, just like in sci-fi movies set in the future. It reminded Leon of watching a few flicks with that kind of setting.

The door led them both to an area similar to the previous hall, only this one had a sign on its wall that read "EAST AREA" in blue lettering.

Leon started to notice, as they traveled forward, that the corridor's temperature went from warm to cold. It was as if someone had lowered the place's thermostat in here.

Moments later, the two approached a room with a giant, metal door that was partly blanketed in ice shavings from top to bottom. John guessed that this area led to a place meant for cryogenic research purposes. This reminded him of the cryostasis pods he and Thel 'Vadam spent decades in while drifting away in space on the FORWARD UNTO DAWN. He wondered what he, Cortana and Thel missed out on over the years after the war's end.

Leon tugged at the door's handle, but the door was too stiff and would not move, plus the handle was very cold. John helped by pulling the handle hard enough to not only open it, but his actions caused the door's hinges to break.

Gaining entry, they found themselves inside the boundaries of a laboratory that was, as John suspected, frozen all over inside.

"Looks like the winter season came here early." Cortana joked after seeing the frost-bitten environment. Leon felt himself starting to shiver and his breath was visible in the form of a huffy cloud of air. White fog seeped throughout the floor, covering their legs.

Because of his armor suit, John remained warm. Some of the cold air did produce a little dense fog on his helmet visor, but it didn't bother him.

From the other side of the lab's desk was a single zombified scientist. Its body was incredibly pale and blue. It made its way to the two, but the freezing cold temperatures rendered its mobility to that of a snail or a really elderly person. It was like looking at a dead living statue. Or in this case, an _undead_, living statue.

Leon walked up to the zombie and simply pushed it backward and the creature wound up falling and its head shattered like a glass bowl upon impact with the ground.

_How _ice_ of you to drop by. _Leon thought sarcastically and he and John were free to explore the lab.

On one desk full of discarded and useless research items, a small, robotic arm device was seen, complete with a hand and fingers. The frost-covered arm towered over a tray of 14 small, tube-shaped sockets that were vacant except for one which contained something metallic.

The lone item in question couldn't just be plucked out of its position as Leon saw and even if it could, he wouldn't be able to because his fingers and thumbs were starting to enter a state of numbness due to the chilly air. He was wearing fingerless gloves, after all.

They soon guessed that the robot arm was capable of fulfilling that task and the duo searched around the desk for a way to activate the mechanical arm, the officer spotted next to the limb, a cylindrical-shaped socket meant for inserting a key of the exact shape that would then operate the arm.

Getting a feeling, Leon cleared the desk of the useless test tubes, microscopes and other science junk, set his bag on top and submerged his hands in it for a key to the robot arm.

"Bingo!" he exclaimed when he found what he sought, which was a Fuse Case item he found back on the surface.

He took the object and placed it inside the machine's socket. The fuse case item began to turn clockwise on its own until it was completely buried in the machine.

The machine instantly whirred to life and the robotic arm twirled and moved above the nearly-empty tray. The arm bent down, placed its hand and fingers on top of the intended object and began to rotate counter-clockwise until it freed the item from its spot and brought it over to where Leon inserted the fuse case and put the object inside that same spot.

After that was done, the arm returned to its original position and ceased movement. Whirring noises were audible and the object, along with the fuse case item, resurfaced. It seemed that the machine had combined the two items into something new, an item called a "main fuse". Leon took it and placed it in his bag.

"Let's go before we become frozen, zombie treats." Leon said and they left the cold lab.

Once outside, Leon began breathing heavily onto his hands for warmth as they were still a little numb. Other than that, he couldn't feel any pain in his bandaged shoulder, that part he enjoyed. But as warmth returned to him, so did all feeling returned to his hands and to his shoulder wound.

_Easy come, easy go._ He thought disappointingly.

The soldier and cop made it back to the catwalk area and were standing back inside the center. Before going any further, they took a gander down at the table-like device sitting in the middle of the area and a thought occurred to Leon.

Digging into his bag again (he was beginning to regret not putting some of his things away in the storage box back in the security room), he took out the main fuse item and placed it in the center hole of the machine.

As a result of that action, the entire center area went dark at first, forcing the two to take battle stances out of instinct. When the lights were revived, they saw that the center's color background had converted from red to blue.

The machine emitted a beep sound and that was all. With nothing else to do here, they headed for the west wing area again to see if they missed anything.

John's radar picked up a pair of enemy signals coming from behind the locked metal gate to their left. Deciding to just get it over with, Leon pressed a button on the wall and prepared to shoot whatever was there. The gate opened and two more plant creatures and one zombie were discovered along with another unexplored door beyond them. The virus carriers were killed and the duo entered the door.

The pair were now standing on top of a fire escape built in a huge shaft area. On their right was another plant B.O.W., but it was much bigger than any of the man-sized plants and it was blanketing the entire wall of that direction. Multiple, slimy vines slithered from the living wall, cocoons were showing and they noticed more mutated plants emerging from the cocoons. It was like the wall was giving birth to the monsters and it was incredibly disgusting to watch. This led to them assuming that the enormous thing was the leader of the Ivies.

A ground ladder leading down to the area's lower balcony level was seen and Leon climbed it down while John simply leaped over the railing to the bottom platform instead of taking the ladder and immediately went to work of clearing a path for Leon from the four Ivies that were waiting for them.

The B.O.W.s tried to gang up on the Spartan and they were stabbed and pulverized until dead and the confrontation ended with the last Ivy plant being hurdled over the bridge railing. It let out a screech of terror that echoed all over the area until a distant thud from below silenced it for good.

Leon praised John for his work and they left the vegetation-infested place and into another hallway.

Sensing another danger nearby, John instantly stepped ahead of Leon as a Licker burst out from a ceiling vent and landed in front of them.

Its appearance differed from the rest of its kind. Its skinless body was more green than red, the talons on its front feet were bigger than those of a regular Licker and it was faster in movement. To put it simply; they were an evolved version of the Licker species. Was there any B.O.W. that Umbrella couldn't create?

_They just get more ugly by the minute._ Leon thought.

Able to lift his shotgun with ease now, Leon fired two shots at the inside-out-looking monster. When the Licker was slightly distracted by its shotgun injury, its front left arm bleeding badly, John backhanded the monster in the face and knocked it farther back and it landed on its back. Before it could get up, John pinned it down by pressing his foot against its throat and fatally stabbed at its heart organ twice and removed its head.

Moving past the Licker corpse, they learned that they were now inside a large room with a wall full of surveillance monitor screens. Some of them were operating and some were inactive and some were showing endless static.

Leon jogged over to the screens and started moving the joysticks that controlled each camera and glared at the screens, hoping to find the security room on any of them to make sure Ada was still safe inside. The room wasn't seen anywhere on the active screens and so Leon tried fixing the downed screens, but they refused to work, making Leon groan in irritation and he chose leave and come back later. Along the way, they came across another storage box and a map pinned to the wall above it that contained useful directions around the infested facility.

Studying the map, they learned that the very room they were in was called the "B5F Monitor Room", they also learned that the lab with the freezing temperature and mechanical arm from before was called "B4F LOW TEMPERATURE ROOM". Leon tore the map off its bobby pin and looked inside the storage container and found a box of ammunition for a submachine gun. Leon didn't have a weapon like that and neither did John.

They left the room.

Later, they entered a place with two intersections. One path lead to an area marked "P-4 LABORATORY" and the second lead to an area called "B5F COMPUTER ROOM". That place's hall was covered in a webbing-like substance and on the ground and ceiling were what appeared to be eggs the size of a human head. Whatever laid them reminded the men and A.I. of the giant spider they found and killed back in the sewer/cellblock area. Seeing the strange web goo and the big eggs blocking the entire hall made it appear that another virus-mutated arachnid was around and responsible for creating them.

Taking a random choice between taking the infested hall or the P-4 lab, Leon and John directed themselves to the infested hall first, with John taking point and informing him to stay far away to ensure Leon's safety. They guessed that the thing was inside the hall's room on their right and they made it their intention to terminate the creature first. Perhaps there were more like it further ahead. Well, either way, the two were ready for anything.

While crossing the hall, they noticed that the eggs started twitching, then they began hatching.

The creatures that hatched from the eggs were not infant virus spiders as they had suspected, but enlarged larvae bugs. While Leon was relieved that these small creatures were not birthed from any mutated spider, he also worried what kind of insect monster could have brought them into the world. Since these larvae were newborns, it was quite difficult to identify their species as they looked exactly alike. The only way to know for sure was to wait until they reached adulthood. Not only would that take either long or short due to the virus infection, but they didn't want to wait around to find out.

After most of the larvae escaped their nesting places, they began to crawl for the Spartan who was in close range of them.

John killed the overgrown larvae by simply crushing them under the soles of his steel boots and stabbed and cut the wall-bound ones with his machete.

While the Master Chief disposed of the newborn larvae on his own, two larvae who escaped his field of view were crawling over to Leon and he shot and killed them with his pistol.

"I hope there's a washing station around here that you can use." Cortana humorously said due to John's feet and blade being doused with icky, bug remains. His machete was doused with the blood of just about every creature he killed with it. John didn't respond and kept moving.

The bugs were dead and John told Leon to follow him. They approached the room's sliding door.

John's radar gave off another signal coming from beyond the door. The signal indicated that while it was just one hostile, it was bigger in size.

After learning that a key card was needed to gain access inside, which he nor Leon didn't have, he had no choice but to plow it down. It took him two tried to succeed since the doors were made of cranium steel, making them a bit tougher to break open than regular, wooden doors.

As soon as the door broke down and John stepped inside, he and Cortana found the new room to be decorated in more of the bug webbing with more of the big eggs resting inside. On top of that, they heard and spotted a giant-sized moth insect hanging upside down from the ceiling. The discovery of the new insect B.O.W. made the three realize that it was the one that produced the webbing, eggs and larvae outside and in the room.

Waking up, the moth creature dropped from its position and began flapping its giant wings at rapid speed, preparing to attack them.

Although curious of what danger this behemoth of an insect was capable of, Leon and John chose to eliminate the monster rather than just wait and find out.

The infected moth giant discharged a venomous liquid chemical at them that was similar to what the Ivy plants used. Leon was sheltered from the attack by John who blocked the dangerous substance with his left arm. The chemical pestered with his armor's energy shield and dissolved into nothingness in seconds.

John flicked the toxic substance off his arm and laid siege upon the enlarged bug. He rushed toward it and grabbed hold of its legs just as it was about to attach itself to him and lay its eggs on him. John tore one of its wings off before tossing it to the floor and beheading it. The body flopped on the ground for a few seconds before stopping.

Like with his boots, John's machete blade was a mess as it was covered with not just the moth's blood, but with the bloodstains of just about every virus creature he butchered with it except for the infected crows and the giant alligator as he was not around for the former and when the latter animal tried to make a meal out of Leon.

The duo glanced at the eggs and got rid of them before they could hatch and cause further trouble.

With that taken care of, a flickering desktop computer was sighted and they approached it for a better look at it. As it turned out, the machine was fully functional.

Two more larvae varmints were in the path of the computer's reach. They looked up at them and hissed aggressively. John plucked them off the desk and tossed them across the room where they exploded upon impact with the floor like little bombs, allowing Leon access to the computer. Leon thanked him for that and focused on the computer.

"Let's see what we have here." Leon whispered as he began moving the computer's mouse to navigate his way through the computer's content and typing away on its keyboard.

He wasn't much of a whiz when it came to computers, but he did his best to go along with what the screen told him.

On the screen it said:

**UMBRELLA "RODEM" SYSTEM VERSION 5.0.**

**CULTURE EXPERIMENT ROOM STAFF REGISTRY.**

**ENTER YOUR USER NAME.**

Remembering the paper from the bunkbed room, he typed in the "GUEST" name as the paper instructed to use and pressed the "ENTER" key.

The computer then requested a fingerprint registration and, seeing a hand-shaped device sitting on the right next to the computer, Leon gently placed his left hand over the machine, pressing the tips of his fingers on the machine more as he was wearing fingerless gloves, and awaited further results.

The computer screen stated that Leon's registration was complete and that he was granted 24-hour access after inputting the code. Finished here, he and the soldier and A.I. exited the room and headed for the P-4 laboratory.

Once inside the lab, they came across five lockers lined up in a row, all of them unopened. Leon dived into his bag for a key to open them, trying to remember if he did find such a key and which one to use. He picked out a random key called a Weapon Box Key. He inserted it into the lock of the first locker in front of him, hoping that it was the right key, and he was correct. Now that he knew he was holding the right key, Leon used it to open the other lockers, searching them one at a time.

"Uhhh . . ."

They quickly turned their heads and discovered five zombified scientists in another part of the lab stumbling toward their direction.

One of the zombie workers limped close enough for the room's sliding door to open, granting it access.

Thinking fast, Leon reached for his pistol to shoot and kill the creature when the Spartan commando had already beat him to that by knocking it down on the floor and performing a powerful, fatal stomp on its head.

He insisted Leon to continue his locker investigation while he fought with the remaining zombies.

When Leon peered into the last locker in front of him, he happened upon a wooden box with a blue stamp posted on its top lid that said "Magnum Parts". He picked it up, removed its lid and found just what the stamp said it contained.

Inside were parts meant for constructing a magnum handgun weapon, it wasn't for the revolver type. Wanting to try it out and remembering having magnum ammunition stashed away in his bag, Leon put the pieces together like a puzzle and viola! He was now the owner of a handgun more powerful than his original handgun.

He closed all the locker doors and went to rendezvous with the Master Chief who had already cleared the lab room of all its undead inhabitants.

They scoured around the place for clues and/or more equipment and Leon found on a desk a red-colored lab card key that said "UMBRELLA" on it with a small, red and white umbrella symbol next to the name, the obvious logo of the pharmaceutical company that created the chaos everywhere. Looking closer, Leon realized that the card was for accessing the B5F Computer Room, the place with the currently-deceased giant moth.

Leon felt like socking himself in the face for not coming here first to acquire the card. He decided to take the card with him anyway for future use with other, unexplored rooms in the underground complex. If the card failed to work its magic, the big guy in the armor suit was always around to act as a substitute for the card.

Remembering something, Leon peeked at the map and they began making their way back to the East Area hall and found a room they've yet to explore until now.

Leon took out the Umbrella key card, slid it in its card slot and after it beeped a green light on its lock indicating that it was now unlocked, they entered the room.

There was but one problem upon entering: it was void of any light save for a blinking computer screen on the far end of the room and to make it worse, the all-too familiar zombie groaning was heard and, from the way it sounded, there was more than one zombie was lurking in the dark.

Lacking a flashlight or anything to navigate himself through the darkness, Leon sat this one out and left the flesh-eaters to the Master Chief.

John activated his helmet night vision and quickly went to work in cleansing the lab room of the zombies.

About five zombies were present. Three of them were killed via beheading. The fourth zombie had its neck snapped and the final one had its skull bashed and shattered on the floor like an egg when John hoisted it upside down in a pile-driver position and dropped it down hard.

"All clear, Mr. Kennedy." Cortana called out and Leon felt it was safe to move around the room, but he asked John to find a light switch for him. When one was found, John flicked it on and light overcame the room's darkness and John deactivated his night vision.

The new place was a medical unit called a P-4 Experimental Room. Inside were a few medical, stretcher beds around one corner where John was seen standing over the zombies he had just recently killed, a few switches and buttons built into the walls, and a machine contraption hogging up half of the lab room. A small computer screen, the one that they saw before re-lighting the place, showed the machine's name, it was called "V.A.M." The screen stated that it was meant for aiding in the creation of a vaccine. They had no clue what this vaccine was for and they expressed no interest for it anyway.

On one of the experimental tables, Leon found something called an MO disk. Like with the Umbrella card, he got a hunch that the disk item would later prove to be of great importance and put it in his inventory bag and they departed the experiment room.

Once outside, the two authority figures came face-to-face with the psycho woman who shot Leon back in the sewer system. Leon got a good look at the identification tag pinned to her lab coat and it said "Dr. Annette Birkin" along with the Umbrella logo. She was an Umbrella Inc employee, or at least she was.

Annette not only carried in her right hand the same handgun she shot at them with(and injured Leon with it), she also held in her left hand a vial tube containing a strange, purple liquid. Neither man didn't know what the liquid was, but what they did know however, was that the deranged scientist standing before them appeared to be hellbent for revenge and the very enraged look on her face combined with the pistol pointed at them was a no-brainer.

"You two murdered my husband! I know what you're looking for! You came for the G-virus, didn't you? But neither of you will ever take it from me! This is my husband's legacy!" she screamed at them.

The two men and hidden A.I. remained silent. They were confused of what Annette was talking about. Other than the G-Virus she accused them of seeking out and stealing, when she said they killed her husband, they were unaware that she was referring to the hideous monster that injured Ada back on the tram car, William Birkin.

"Now," she continued. "where's that spy you were with earlier? You know who I'm talking about."

"What spy?" Leon questioned and Annette let out a short laugh that mimicked a mad scientist. Technically speaking, she really was a mad scientist.

"You really don't know, do you? You're so gullible! I'm talking about that bitch, Ada Wong! She's one of the operatives sent here by the agency to steal the G-Virus! That's the only reason why she came here." She explained. If she wanted to, she could have added a big, fat "duh!" to her explanation.

"That's a lie!" Leon said sharply. How dare this woman talk that way about Ada, least of all call her a bitch? If anyone here was a bitch, it's her.

"No, it's the truth." Annette countered smugly. "I discovered this when I did a background check on her. She specifically got close to John Clemens and became his girlfriend to dig up information on Umbrella."

Leon wanted to tell Annette that her story about Ada was total bullshit and that she should shut the hell up, but for some reason, he didn't. What Annette was telling him sounded impossible to him and he refused to believe any of it.

"That can't be, I know her! Ada wouldn't do something like that!" he said. Part of him wanted to believe it, but he didn't allow it to surface.

Annette just shrugged and said, "If you don't want to believe me, fine. I don't really care because you and your accomplice are about to die anyway!"

She then raised her handgun at the two and prepared to fire.

While Leon can be harmed by her gun, as he had been previously and he had the bloodstained bandage around his left shoulder to prove it, the same could not be done with John. Did this woman really believe that she can bring death to the powerful UNSC-employed Spartan 2 commando? As she said, she didn't care.

The Master Chief quickly moved in to disarm Annette. Before the scientist could shoot, the super soldier was standing directly in front of her in a mere second, startling her, and he slapped at her hand holding the gun, causing her to misfire once and hit the wall on her right instead. She was slow to react defensively as John then delivered an open-palm strike that sent her flying way back until she slammed against the door behind her.

She was now laying unconscious on the ground, barely alive and she should consider herself lucky that John chose not to kill her. What he did to her could have killed her. though. Especially since he had enhanced strength.

Just then, a sudden jolt rattled the area and they looked around, wondering if it was caused by a large, virus creature.

A large chunk of debris from the ceiling, made up of pipes and panels, rained down over where John stood. The hazardous debris clanked and clunked all over him, but it didn't do any serious harm to him and it only sparked his armor shields by a mere seventeen percent.

The duo went to inspect the downed woman. They found a large bruise on the side of her head and blood was flowing from the injury.

Leon spotted the tube with the purple liquid still clutched in Annette's hand and undamaged from the impact. He pried it out of Annette's hand and, upon closer inspection, a sticker label was seen on it that it said **"G-VIRUS**" along with a message printed in bold, capital lettering that said:

"**WARNING: HANDLE MATERIAL WITH EXTREME CARE AT ALL TIMES!" **

A biohazard symbol was present near the warning.

_I wonder if this virus is grape flavored._ Leon joked sarcastically in his head.

Since John had no bags or pockets on him, Leon decided to hold onto the G-Virus tube and carefully slipped it into his pants pocket rather than in his bag. He just felt that putting it in his pocket was less risky and easy to remember where it was.

A frightening shudder hit Leon like a bolt of lightening when he realized he was now in possession of an extremely, dangerous man-made biological substance that spelled doom for whomever it infected. Unknown to him, John or Cortana, the G-Virus is what spawned the giant creature that wounded Ada during their ride down here in the first place.

Leon put the spine-chilling thought aside and he and John navigated themselves out of the hall, leaving Annette behind.

* * *

**Annette's awakening prior to Leon and John's departure.**

* * *

Annette regained consciousness a couple of minutes afterward. Her back and her head ached badly. Never in her life had she been assaulted that hard.

She got up slowly and let out a pained groan and clutched at her head, back and chest. What happened to her not too long ago gave her aches in her head and chest. The pain in her skull felt as if a nuclear missile went off inside and she hurt everywhere. Annette looked down at herself to check for anything broken or cut and found, and felt, a painful, swollen bruise on her chest from where John hit her. Man, did that hurt like crap!

She gasped in panic when she learned that the G-Virus tube was missing. She searched the pockets on her lab coat and pants, but it was nowhere to be found.

_Those conniving, thieving bastards! I knew they were after the G-Virus! Damn them both!_ she thought angrily, slamming her fist on the ground.

Annette stood up and went to retrieve her handgun, making it her personal mission to go after the two men, get her revenge on them for taking the G-virus and reclaim it.

_I'll teach those two to steal my husband's creation!_

Before she could leave, a loud rumble erupted near her and then something barged in from one of the hall's doorways.

Annette turned to the source of the noise . . . and gasped shockingly.

It was the giant monstrosity that lost its battles to John and Leon and later Claire and Thel. While Annette felt fearful of being in the presence of the powerful creature, a little joy sparked in her mind, for she was very familiar with the beast.

"Oh, my god! William! You're alive!" she said with glee.

The monster that was none other than her scientist husband, and also the father of Claire's pre-teen companion, William Birkin, responded with only a menacing growl and advanced toward the only survivor in front of him. The urge to kill her raced in his altered mind, his massive claws extending for use.

Annette was stunned by G-William's ignorance of her and started taking a few steps backward.

"William, don't you recognize me at all? I'm your wife, Annette! Remember?" she said to the towering abomination and raised her left hand, showing a gold ring wrapped around her ring finger in hopes of getting her mutated significant other to realize what she was trying to tell him.

The former scientist stopped in his tracks and stared at the blond woman with a look of curiosity on his deformed face. His head tilted to one side, accompanied with a confused grunt.

Even though she knew that G-Virus subjects would lose all memories of their former lives as she admitted to Claire Redfield back in the sewers, Annette hoped that her words, along with the presence of their wedding rings, had gotten to William and triggered his memories from when he was human. She also hoped that her peaceful actions would somehow overcome the G-Virus' control over William and that these would halt her monstrous husband from giving in to his homicidal tendencies and redeem himself.

Unfortunately for her, all of that was shattered when William snapped out of his distraction, roared ferociously and began charging at Annette at top speed. While he did this, he raised one of his large talons, ready for slashing the only human survivor in the entire hallway.

Rather than run for her life, Annette stood her ground and raised her gun to defend herself from what was to come. She fired just one shot before she let out a frightful gasp that soon evolved into a scream of terror and agonizing pain within seconds as the creature that was once her husband struck her down without remorse, his claws met with her flesh with horrific results. She was then hurled backward onto the wall, just like how the Master Chief did with her when she tried to kill Leon, and landed on her side. Blood dripped from William's talons and he didn't notice and probably didn't care. Her chest and stomach areas were deeply torn and slashed and were bleeding heavily.

"William . . . how . . . how could . . . you? Your own wife . . .!" she muttered as the behemoth "G" monster departed the hall in search of the next flesh-and-blood relative on his hit list, leaving the injured Annette Birkin for dead. To him, she was just another pathetic human who was unfortunate enough to cross his path. He was no longer William Birkin, scientist extraordinaire and loving family man. He was a mutation that needed to be annihilated.

While she struggled to stay conscious and avoid dying right there, something else flashed in her mind, it was someone whom she hardly spent time with yet she still cared about; Sherry. She was in mortal danger of being killed by either her embryo infection or by the hands of the brute that tried to kill her.

A sudden change of plans stormed in her mind. Rather than try to protect the G-Virus as she had desired to do before, she decided that it needed to be destroyed. If Ada's agency or somebody else got their hands on the virus, there would be no telling what the virus would do. The G-Virus had to go, for Sherry's sake. After all, it already infected her and she was close to dying from it.

* * *

**Back to John and Leon . . .**

* * *

Leon and John had returned to the turntable catwalk and updated two objectives in their heads: regroup with their other fellow survivors and leave the damned facility.

"Leon!" said a familiar, female voice. It certainly wasn't Claire Redfield's voice, that was for sure.

The two turned about face and saw Ada Wong emerging from a door far from them and soon stood on the same bridge as them. The handgun she had all night long in her right hand.

"I've been waiting for you." she said and, to Leon's surprise, she suddenly raised her handgun and aimed it directly at them.

"Ada? What . . . what are you doing?" Leon asked, stunned beyond belief of the scenario unfolding before him. He assumed the claw injury she had was messing with her mind.

"You know what this is about, Leon. Hand over that G-Virus. I know you have it." she demanded coldly. The antagonizing, stern look on her face told the cop and soldier that she was dead serious.

"I don't believe this. Annette was right about you . . . about everything." Leon said in disappointment. He was upset about the fact that the woman he and his Spartan ally have fought alongside with the whole time, the woman he started to bond over during the all-night struggle against the virus-infected living dead, was a criminal spy, just as Annette had said. He felt as if something was torn out of him upon this realization and it devastated him deeply. If Annette was around and witnessed this, she would probably say "I told you so!"

"That's why I told you and your friend to leave without me, but neither of you wouldn't listen! Now hand it over! Don't make me shoot you!" she threatened. By "you", she meant Leon as she, like Annette, would be no match for John. Perhaps she wasn't thinking clearly due to her arm injury or her determination to capture the G-Virus clouded her judgement.

"You can't do that." he told her calmly and stood his ground, refusing Ada's demand for the G-Virus.

He wasn't saying that because he had John with him for protection, he was trying to convince Ada that he still cared deeply for her and also to abandon her mission and escape the laboratory and Raccoon City with him along with John, Cortana, and hopefully Claire Redfield, Thel 'Vadam, and Sherry Birkin. He didn't even bother to use his weapons to defend himself and John didn't either. He didn't even plan on disarming her because a scan of her weapon with his technology revealed that it was void of ammunition. She was trying to trick Leon with an empty pistol, one of the oldest tricks in the book.

Ada found herself struggling over whether or not to keep up with her bluff on the rookie police officer she got along so well with during their crazy adventure together throughout Raccoon City, unaware that the Master Chief had already learned of her deceitful act. She even developed some feelings for the man in the R.P.D. uniform, something she didn't expect when they first met and didn't figure that it would happen.

Her hands trembled around her weapon of choice as she kept it locked onto her targets. She was trying to put her mission objective first, to take the G-Virus and flee Raccoon and back to her organization. It shouldn't be so hard, right? If this were like a cartoon, a tiny angel and a tiny devil, both looking like Ada, would probably poof up from out of nowhere and persuade her into deciding.

After hesitating for about a few seconds, Ada found herself unable to go through with it and she slowly lowered her gun in self-defeat.

_He's right. I . . . I can't harm him or his partner, even if they have the one thing I'm supposed to take._ She thought to herself as she stared at the ground in shame.

Leon started to approach Ada, keeping his hands away from his holstered handgun and other weapons to prove to her that he had no intention of taking advantage of her mental downfall whatsoever. Although aware now of her true purpose of being in the city and the lab, he still wanted to help her as he had hope for her yet.

Ada looked up at Leon and was about to say something to him when a single, unexpected gunshot was fired from behind her and hit her.

Ada shrieked in great pain and stumbled toward Leon as if she were intoxicated. A botch of blood was seen splattering from her back and shoulder.

"Ada!" Leon cried out.

While Leon went in to help her, he and John got a clear glimpse of Ada's assailant standing far away from them and saw that it was none other than Annette Birkin. Her stomach and chest revealed large claw marks with three bleeding gashes. This told them that she had come under attack by a B.O.W. with enlarged claws. John wondered if she was assaulted by a Licker or a Hunter, but after zooming in on her wounds for inspection, he saw that whatever harmed her was possibly more dangerous than those creatures because the marks looked bigger that the previous, suspected B.O.W.s.

"G . . . G-Virus . . ." the injured scientist muttered and collapsed on the catwalk floor, dropping her handgun and was unconscious once again.

Ada stumbled, dropped her decoy gun and fell over the bridge railing.

Leon quickly sprinted to her and caught her hand in time and struggled to hold on and keep her from falling to her imminent doom. The lab map flew out of his bag and floated all the way down and away from Leon's or anyone's reach. Without that map, they'd now have to rely on memory to guide themselves around.

John assisted in pulling Ada back up to the bridge and succeeded.

Ada knelt over and reached her hand out to cover her new injury, clenching her teeth. First the claw injury by the "G" creature and now a bullet wound on her shoulder just like Leon had. This was, indeed, not their lucky day. What was it, "Shoot-Leon-And-Ada-Day"?

Leon wanted to help Ada up, but she slapped his hand away. Not out of anger, she was just ashamed for failing her mission and for betraying the two people who protected her twice. She felt pretty stupid for it.

"It's over, Leon. You know my secret now. Just leave me and escape while you can." She said weakly.

"Don't talk that way, you're gonna make it!" he said.

"It's too late, Leon. We both know it." Ada said, tears forming in her eyes as she said that. Leon glanced at her arm injury and assumed that she meant that she would mutate into a zombie because of it. He was wrong about that, Ada was safe from zombification.

"No!" Leon protested. "I promised you that we would escape together! You just have to help me out here!"

Ada stared at the cop with her teary eyes.

"I . . . really wanted to escape with you before, Leon. From this . . . from everything." Her voice cracked up a little from the pain of both her wounds and from her guilt of deceiving Leon the whole time.

_Curse you, guilt and chemistry!_

Leon could tell that Ada was being completely honest about her words, no bull. The tears flowing out of her eyes and rolling down her cheeks were all the evidence needed to back that up.

"We still can! You don't have to die here! We can treat your injuries like you did with me and when we get out of here, you can start a new life somewhere away from Umbrella and your company. What do you say?" he said and offered his hand out to her again, hoping that she would accept this time. It seemed that he really wanted Ada to come along despite her status as a secret agent.

Ada assumed that, due to his status as a police officer, Leon would arrest her as soon as they got out alive. But that was unlikely to happen considering the fact that he was now out of a job thanks to the citywide outbreak. What good would law in order be for a town filled with monsters whose only goal is to feast on anyone they see fit for a meal.

After a few seconds of thinking it over, Ada made her decision and slowly rose to her feet after taking Leon's hand. Her new bullet injury made her feel disoriented, like she had a high fever or something. Leon helped her up when she nearly stumbled again, but she declined the aid and repeated her action, succeeding this time around. She wasn't shot in the legs, but she felt like she deserved it for trying to pull a fast one on Leon.

Leon asked Ada if she needed help with walking and she said no.

"Alright, let's go everyone." Leon ordered and they moved on.

Before leaving, Leon removed the G-Virus tube from his pocket and stared at it with hatred in his mind and eyes.

"So, _this_ is what everyone's been dying for . . ." he said.

Ada saw the viral product he was holding. Even though it was her main target from the beginning, she was too delusional and in pain to care. She couldn't decide on whether to focus on her mission or not. Right now, the only thing she wanted was to get the hell out of "Zombieland" and see where fate would lead her.

Seeing enough of the biohazardous product that was half responsible for the ungodly horrors that plagued Raccoon City (the other mostly being the T-Virus), Leon arched his arm back and hurled the tube far over the bridge and into the distance and darkened ground below them, never to be seen or used again.

The sound of shattering wasn't heard because of the vast openness of the area, but nobody cared at the moment. The G-Virus was gone and that was all they wanted. Ada perhaps thought otherwise.

They kept moving until they made it back to the main elevator. Ada leaned against one of the elevator's walls and Leon went to check on her out of concern. John eyed the elevator's control panel and he inched his hand over to it when Leon's beeping radio stopped him and the officer answered it.

Ada's thoughts were racing with curiosity from Leon's deed to her.

_I lied to him about myself. I even threatened him with an empty gun to get the stupid G-virus and yet here he is, still trying to help me. How could he do that after what I did? Would I do the same if roles were reversed?_

"Leon!" said Claire's voice from the transmitter device.

"Claire? Where are you?" Leon asked, speaking into the radio.

"I'm in the lab's monitor room. I can see you on one of the cameras." she answered.

He and John turned their heads and discovered the camera Claire was talking about. Leon was partly glad that Claire was here in the underground facility with them. But with the whole place about to go off eventually, he was afraid for her.

"But never mind that right now. I left Sherry in the security office and I need you and John to go and watch over her until I get there! Please, you must help me save her!" she said.

"Is she alright?" Leon questioned.

"She's infected with a dangerous G-Virus embryo!" said Claire.

"What?" asked Leon.

"I'll explain that later. I have a vaccine that can save her and we must bring it to her before she dies! Hurry!" she said.

"Alright. As soon as we save Sherry, we're ditching this lab." Leon said.

"Okay!" Claire said and turned her radio off with Leon doing the same.

They pressed a button on the panel that took them to the floor where the security room was.

More nude zombies were seen trying to break into the room to get to Sherry and the trio killed them. They re-entered the security office and discovered Claire's pre-teen companion laying on the bed Ada once laid on. She was wearing Claire's motorcycle vest. The bloodstains from Ada's arm were seen on the bed's sheets. Sherry's face looked quite pale and she looked feverish. She looked and felt like hell.

Sherry turned her head and saw the two men and woman inside looking down at her. She wanted to ask who they were and why they were here, but Leon beat her to it.

"It's alright, Sherry. We're with Claire. She asked us to keep an eye on you until she returns with some sort of vaccine she's prepped for you. Just try to keep it together until then." he assured her.

Sherry gave a light nod, groaned painfully and struggled to go back to resting. Her internal pain from that damned G-embryo in her body was starting to become unbearable. It was like having a deep fever and being pregnant simultaneously. Hearing Claire's name mentioned took her mind off the pain a little.

_Poor kid._ Cortana thought.

Ada knew who this child was and who her parents were and even she felt bad for her. Despite being shot by her mother just a few minutes ago, and being slashed by her monstrous father, she had no grudge against this girl for any of those events. Leon, John and Cortana were unaware of Sherry's relation to Annette and William, but they would know that soon enough.

Ada looked around for any medical supplies for her injuries and found bandage strips similar to what Leon wore along with a few gauze patches. Leon helped her with wrapping the strips and patch, using one of his medical spray cans on her wounds before patching her up. Now they both wore bandages, that's another thing they had in common.

John chose to step outside as a lookout and left Ada and Leon inside with Sherry.

While standing outside, waiting for Thel and Claire to show up, John felt the need to ask Cortana a couple of very important questions.

"Cortana."

"Yes, Chief?" she said and appeared on his HUD system again in her humanoid form.

"You knew how this incident started when we came here."

"Correct. Why?"

"Tell me, after the events of tonight, what will become of Claire, Leon, Sherry, and Ada?"

Cortana hesitated for a moment to gather information on their escorts. It was surprising that Cortana was very knowledgeable about Raccoon City and its dark history despite the fact that in their time period, most people knew very little about it or any of the outbreak disasters before and after Raccoon.

Seconds later, she confirmed her answer.

"Well, here's what I know so far, Chief. It's going to be a long story, so brace yourself. "

John didn't mind it and Cortana cleared her throat and began.

"First up is Claire Redfield. After escaping Raccoon City, Claire will leave to resume her search for her brother Chris Redfield and leaves Sherry with Leon. Three months from now, her quest will bring her to Europe where she'll be captured by Umbrella employed guards and be sent to a prison facility on Rockford Island. On her first day as a prisoner there, another T-Virus outbreak will hit that compound and cause more undead to infest and take over the entire island. Claire, along with another prisoner of the island named Steve Burnside, will escape to Antarctica on a plane, crash land near an Umbrella base built there, and face more B.O.W.'s again. Their new goal while stranded, will be to put a stop to two siblings determined to dominate the world: Alexia Ashford and Alfred Ashford.

Claire and Chris will reunite in Antarctica after being contacted about Claire's situation by Leon who will, in turn, be notified by Claire via e-mail on Rockford, and Steve will die after Alexia injects him with a viral agent similar to the T and G-Viruses called 'T-Veronica', whom she is also a carrier of, and mutates him into a giant monster.

A few years after that, Claire will go on to join a non-governmental human rights organization called 'Terrasave', a group whose primary function is providing aid to those affected by bioterrorism and medical-related incidents, and in the year 2005, seven years after the events of tonight and the outbreaks on Rockford Island and Antarctica, she'll be facing yet another T-Virus infestation at an airport in the city of Harvardville. She and Leon, who will then be a government agent when that happens, will meet again and cooperate against that threat.

Speaking of Leon, after Claire departs from them, he and Sherry are to be retrieved by the American government and they'll use Sherry's safety to blackmail Leon into working with them which he accepts to protect her; kinda like a hostage negotiation. This explains his eventual position as an agent when he deals with the situation in Harvardville.

In 2002, he and another member of Leon's agency named Jack Krauser will be sent to South America to find a drug lord named Javier Hidalgo who is suspected of bringing about another future B.O.W. incident there.

Two years after that, he will travel to the country of Spain, under orders of the future U.S. president of that time, to rescue a young woman and university student named Ashley Graham, the president's daughter. Over there, they will encounter and combat a religious cult called 'Los Illuminados'. Not only will those people be responsible for Ashley's future kidnapping, they are also going to be hosts of a parasitic organism dubbed 'Las Plagas'. They won't be the same as virus zombies, but they will prove to be just as dangerous as the creatures we've been fighting against. The leader of Los Illuminados, Osmund Saddler, will have every Plaga infectee under his command and he will have Leon and Ashley infected with the same parasite as part of his plan to send her back to America, have her pass her parasitic infection onto important government officials, and to her own father, which will allow Saddler to take control of the U.S. government and then the entire world. Saddler's plan will fail after Leon cures Ashley and himself of the parasite, eliminates him and brings Ashley back home in one piece.

Next in the topic is Sherry Birkin. Although the vaccine Claire has will save her from the G-embryo organism in her body, it won't completely rid her of the G-Virus. Instead, it will adapt to her system and will remain a part of her for years to come. This is why Sherry will, sadly to say, spend the next 11 years of her life with the U.S. government and away from society for two reasons: to be experimented on by the government's top scientists who wish to study the remnants of the G-Virus in her blood for their research, and to keep her away from a sadistic virologist/bio-terrorist named Albert Wesker, an Umbrella associate and former captain of the city's S.T.A.R.S. team who desires the virus for his own purposes. He will also make a few appearances at Rockford Island and at the Antarctica facility to try and obtain the T-Veronica virus, which he does so by collecting Steve Burnside's corpse after his death.

Another thing about Claire is that her brother will eventually form a global counter-terrorism unit called the 'Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance', or 'B.S.A.A.' for short, along with another ex-S.T.A.R.S member named Jill Valentine, and a few others whose names I don't know right now.

In the year 2009, when a second Las Plagas infestation hits Africa that closely mirrors the one Leon and Ashley will fight through, Albert Wesker is going to attempt to release a new virus codenamed 'Uroboros' onto the entire planet to infect everybody as part of a plot to become ruler of a 'chosen race' sharing traits like him. His plan will, of course, be foiled and he'll meet his end at the hands of Chris, Jill and two another B.S.A.A. members named Sheva Alomar, who is to be Chris's new partner in Jill's absence as she will be thought to be deceased from an encounter with Wesker in 2006, and Josh Stone, a man who trains Sheva when she joins the unit.

Prior to that event, Sherry will be released from the government's custody on the condition that, like Leon, she too becomes an agent for them to which she immediately accepts to get out of their 'protection'. Her legal guardian, future commanding officer and National Security Adviser to the POTUS, will be a man named Derek C. Simmons. He will be the eventual mastermind responsible for unleashing further and more catastrophic viral outbreaks in the years 2012 and 2013. Civilizations such as Tall Oaks, America, Edonia, Europe, and Lanshiang, China, will be victimized by his scheming, including the future U.S. president himself, Adam Benford.

Other than Simmons, a woman by the name of Carla Radames will take part in the terrorist threat too, but for a different reason that matches Albert Wesker's and Osmund Saddler's plans. Carla will be the founder of an underground corporation called 'Neo-Umbrella', a somewhat successor to the original Umbrella company after said company dies out in 2003, I believe.

The biological strain that will be the main cause of those terror plots in the near-future is called the 'Chrysalid Virus' or 'C-Virus'. It's from a fusion of the G-Virus from Sherry's DNA and the T-Veronica virus.

As for Ada Wong, after today, her motives will get her tangled with Leon over the years. Before we came along, Ada _did_ fall from that bridge back there after Annette shot her and Leon believed she was dead. Turns out she survived her fall with further, nasty injuries and escaped with the G-Virus Leon threw away and brought it back to that organization of hers. Her employer will be, brace for it, Albert Wesker. He will help her escape from the city with the virus. She'll cross paths with Leon during his 2004 mission against the Los Illuminados cult, in 2011 during a civil war in Edonia that involves those Plaga parasites again, and during the C-Virus attacks in China and America. What she does and will do confuses me, though. But that's her.

Besides Leon, Ada will be of some assistance to Sherry during her own mission of escorting to safety, a 20 year old mercenary by the name of Jake Muller. Jake is the son of Albert Wesker, but neither of them has any knowledge about the other. Jake will learn of his link to Wesker from Carla Radames after he and Sherry get captured by her and faces six months of confinement and experimentation to enhance the C-Virus. He will also learn of his father's death from Chris Redfield when the latter admits to killing him back in Africa. Because Jake inherited total immunity to every one of Umbrella's virus weapons from Wesker, his DNA will make him the sole source of creating an antidote that will aid in combating the C-Virus in the future.

Along with that, when the global C-Virus threat occurs, Ada will be framed for causing it and this will make her a wanted target by the B.S.A.A., especially by Chris Redfield. That Carla woman I mentioned will kill Chris' team during the Edonian outbreak except for a B.S.A.A. member named Piers Nivans, Chris' new partner after Sheva, and with Carla having the exact physical appearance of Ada in that time thanks to one Simmons' experiments to recreate Ada Wong as he will carry a creepy obsession of her, as well as using her name to identify herself with, Chris will be hungry for revenge and spend most of his time hunting Ada and Carla during the C-Virus epidemic, mistaking both women to be the same person."

"So Ada survives her infection? Does she find a treatment for her condition like Claire just did for Sherry." John asked, remembering the spy's arm wound from the "G" monster.

"Well yes, she survives and no because the creature that harmed her was a G-Virus creation. See, unlike T-Virus B.O.W.s, 'G' creatures cannot pass infection onto others through bites, scratches and stabbings like their 'T' counterparts. To make up for this, they impregnate victims with their 'G-embryos' through oral means, which, by the way, sounds completely disgusting. The child in the room behind you, as you and I clearly saw, is a victim from that method of infection."

"That Neo-Umbrella company you explained about. Since it doesn't exist in our time at all, what happened to it?" the Spartan wanted to know.

"You got me, Chief. My guess is that Neo-Umbrella's demise came after the future C-Virus disaster. It, along with the B.S.A.A., won't be heard of again for centuries to come. I have no idea how, when, and why the B.S.A.A. will be absent later on."

She wiped her forehead even though she wasn't capable of sweating.

"What will happen to Raccoon City?" John questioned.

"Well, due to the T-Virus being uncontrollable and posing the risk of reaching and infecting other towns and cities, the U.S. president is going to authorize the town's destruction via a nuclear missile strike on October 1st 1998 to try erasing the spread of the virus, which happens to be in a couple of days. This entire town is going to be a crater soon enough!"

After she finished her explanation, John thought about all the things that were going to happen and had one last question to ask.

"Should we inform them of their futures?"

Cortana gave it some thought. It occurred to her just now that since they were in the past, that would mean that the theory known as the "time paradox theory" should be in effect.

"That's a tough one to answer, John. Have you ever heard of a little something called a time paradox theory?"

John nodded and Cortana continued.

"If anything in the past, big or small, is changed in any way, then futuristic events, places and people could be altered and/or erased and the outcome from that may lead to either good or disastrous intentions, depending on what the changed subject was originally. Killing the creatures is okay though, pretty obvious." she explained.

The time paradox subject hadn't crossed John's mind during his stay in the 20th century. Sure, he and Cortana _could_ keep all this valuable information about Umbrella's eventual impact on society to themselves and let the flow of time resume normally, but he wondered that perhaps they should share their newfound knowledge to the survivors. It would change the future in a lot of ways, maybe even them too, but what they knew could actually help in countering against some of the future biohazard outbreaks, as well as reduce major fatalities and end Umbrella earlier than its original death date. Withholding this useful and life-saving info just didn't seem right.

"Maybe we should tell them about what's to come. It will be of great use to them and to the world." John said.

"To be honest," she said. "I was going to say that we shouldn't do that in order to keep the timeline in check, but because of Umbrella's work being a complete threat to the public, as we all saw above ground, and our resources being the answer to destroying them early and saving others, I figure, what the hell. This could be our big chance of rewriting history for the good of everyone."

From what she said earlier, Claire, Leon, Ada and Sherry make it out of Raccoon City and face more viral disasters from then on. With John and Cortana here, both agreed to their new plan of altering future history, not caring about whatever time-related negative consequences they might receive on themselves for their deeds. There was even a possibility of everyone and everything they knew in their time being erased, changed or perhaps remaining the same due to making changes to the timeline, like the United Nations Space Command, the SPARTAN program, the ODST's, and every conflict ever fought, including the Insurrection, the battle for Reach and the Human-Covenant War. It was a risk they were willing to take. Protecting people from all threats was their sole duty, no matter what.

If they and Thel 'Vadam couldn't find a way to return to the future and are to be stranded in this time period, at least they could start new lives in combating bioterrorism now that they were aware of it before anyone else would eventually. It sounded a lot better than sitting back and letting all the aforementioned biohazards take place on the planet. This was their big chance at rewriting history for the better.

Cortana also figured out that if that were to be marooned here, the task of keeping their advanced weapons, technology and herself, a secret from society was going to be a big challenge. With their presence, Umbrella and other corrupt organizations and governments will know about them at some point and they'll probably initiate a massive hunt for them and their equipment and if they actually succeed in doing that, there's no telling what those people would be capable of if they got their hands on technology such as theirs. It's not like they can just find new areas to reside in peace and act like that wouldn't happen at all.

She voiced these concerns of hers to the Master Chief and he assured her that he would never allow any of that to happen and he meant it. Cortana once told him to never make a promise that he couldn't keep, and John was solely determined to enforce it like he did when he retrieved her from the Gravemind.

Of all the organizations on Earth, there was perhaps one organization that could probably be entrusted with Thel and John's technology and weapons; the B.S.A.A. If bioterrorism was going to resume even after Umbrella's downfall in 2003, their equipment and armor would really come in handy for them in their battles against B.O.W.s in the near-future. That was something to consider.

There was also Claire's eventual organization, Terrasave. Their cause was going to be similar to the B.S.A.A. Maybe they could use it too.

Unknown to them, there was, indeed, a way for them to return home. They just didn't know it yet.

* * *

**Side B . . .**

* * *

Claire Redfield and Thel 'Vadam had once more stepped into the world of survival horror as they began their descent into the lab. This place had "B.O.W. Hangout" written all over.

Most of the creatures they found were already dead thanks to John and Leon's efforts. They were stunned to see corpses of the plant monsters as they were new to them.

Some zombies reanimated as Crimson Heads and were taken down immediately. Neither person knew why that kept happening to killed zombies.

Claire could barely think for herself. She was so desperate to seek out that vaccine for Sherry Birkin. It was driving her nuts deep down inside. Ever since she and Sherry met, over time, they started to quickly develop a attachment to one another like a mother and daughter or sisters. She'd never forgive herself if they were too late in saving her.

They ventured through the same hallways and rooms their two allies had already passed such as the East and West Wing halls, the B4F Low Temperature Laboratory, the B5F Monitor room and so on.

When they arrived in the monitor room, Claire walked up to the screens to check if John and/or Leon were wandering around the lab too. She remembered what Leon's note from the tram platform said, so she figured they were somewhere down here.

Results were negative, they didn't show up on the screens(the ones that worked), but during the task, Claire did happen upon some old footage on one screen. This wasn't the best time, but the two needed to see it anyway.

The events in the footage was dated to have taken place sometime before the zombie incident. It showed a single man dressed as a scientist and he was in a lab room working on something important. A small product was in his hand, a tube with a purple liquid substance in it. He spoke, but the surveillance footage was mute so the two couldn't quite figure out what he was saying. The man picked up a suitcase object and placed it on a desk. He opened it and placed the tube inside along with other tubes with more purple fluid and others filled with blue liquid.

Claire guessed correctly that the tubes in the case contained the viruses Annette and Irons told them about. The T-Virus that victimized Raccoon City and the G-Virus that mutated Annette's husband and made him release the former.

Suddenly, the lab's door opened and two armed people entered, surprising the scientist when he saw them and he quickly grabbed for a semi-glock pistol on another desk and aimed it at them, determined to protect his work and himself at all costs. The other people did the same with their weapons. The two intruders were dressed in black, military uniforms, wore gas masks over their faces and they carried submachine guns. From their appearances, the intruders were soldiers and they were bad news for the scientist.

The three individuals in the footage engaged in a standoff, one side waiting for the other to either fire first or make a crucial mistake. A small object rolled off one of the lab's desks and landed on the floor, startling the scientist. The soldiers then fired their guns at the man. The worker screamed, dropped his weapon, stumbled back and fell near a desk and chair. His chest and stomach were leaking blood and made its way to the floor.

The mysterious soldiers stopped shooting and they approached the suitcase containing the viruses and picked it up, they intended to steal it. One of them spoke into a headset communicator and soon, they departed the room, leaving the wounded researcher behind to die.

Just then, a woman, also dressed in work uniform, appeared and approached the victimized man, kneeling to him. Claire recognized the woman as Annette Birkin, which meant that the man in the camera was none other than William Birkin, back when he was human. Claire remembered seeing the G-creature look like him when she and the alien first met him under Irons' secret room. He must have been in a "pre-form" stage of some sort.

Annette's back was turned to the camera's field of vision, making lip-reading impossible for the two viewers.

After a moment of silent speaking, the woman stood up and started running out of the lab room to get medical attention for William.

While incapacitated and awaiting Annette's return, William was seen reaching for a leftover G-Virus sample that the intruders failed to notice and take. William placed the virus's tube into a needle injector and he inched it toward his stomach. After taking a moment to say something to himself, William plunged the needle directly into his stomach and pressed the injector device's button and the purple-colored virus disappeared from the tube and entered his body.

William dropped the injector and underwent uncontrollable shaking not too long after infecting himself. The G-Virus was starting to affect him. The woman and alien watched as William's gunshot wounds began healing themselves, sparing him from death, but at the cost of his mental and physical humanity. Later, he stood up and left his lab. His movements resembled a zombie's and his eyes were glowing red. This would be the start of not only his murderous rampage against the Umbrella agents responsible for almost killing him, but also the beginning of Raccoon's fate and his hunt for Sherry.

Claire already knew about the cause of the viral outbreak from Annette, but Thel didn't until now.

The click of a gun was heard. They turned around and saw Annette Birkin standing and aiming her pistol at them.

While she was familiar with Claire, she kept her weapon raised because of the large, alien warrior standing next to Claire whom she mistook for a spy again.

"Who's that?" Annette demanded, her finger on the trigger and ready to fire.

"It's okay, Annette. He's been helping Sherry and I throughout this whole ordeal. He's also the one who found Sherry in the sewers and protected her." Claire said to the paranoid scientist.

Not fully trustful of Thel 'Vadam despite Claire's statement about his deeds, Annette kept her gun aimed at him and demanded to know where Sherry was. Although she showed great hostility toward Claire's other allies, she had seemed to express this behavior less around Claire. It was because they both had great concern for Sherry's safety.

Claire informed her of Sherry's location, along with the news of her G-embryo infection and their hunt for the "DEVIL" vaccine that would save her.

Horrified by the news of her daughter's condition, Annette lowered her gun and rushed to the monitor controls where she immediately activated the switch to a surveillance camera that was installed near the lab's main secret entrance to check if Claire was telling the truth about Sherry being in the security office.

Unfortunately, the monitor showed no activity from that camera because it was down. All it showed was endless static.

While Annette didn't find what she wanted to find, another one of the camera screens showed the giant man-thing known as Mr. X roaming around the facility. He appeared to be in even worse shape than ever now all thanks to the battles he endured with Thel 'Vadam and John-117.

Thel silently looked at the skulking figure in the screen. He now wished he had just decapitated the B.O.W. before, even Mr. X couldn't recover from that.

Afraid now more than ever and feeling like her heart skipped a beat from seeing the B.O.W., Annette turned around and began to run out of the monitor room in a jiffy, leaving Claire and her ally baffled by her sudden rush.

"Annette, wait! What's wrong?" Claire asked.

Annette stopped in her tracks, not bothering to turn to look at Claire.

"The G-Virus sample is inside the pendant Sherry's wearing and that thing is after it! She's completely unaware that she's carrying it at all!" Annette explained and ran again until she was gone.

"So that's why Sherry said she knew nothing about the G-Virus and that she didn't have it when I asked her. She doesn't know she has it." Claire said to Thel and they left the monitor room.

Sometime later, the two arrived in the P-4 Experiment Room and saw more dead zombies along with an Ivy plant creature that hissed and spat its acid saliva at them. It missed Claire, but it hit Thel in the chest, his shields sparked and recovered in seconds.

In retaliation for that, he raised his plasma rifle at the plant B.O.W. and shot it six times. The plasma melted away at its flesh similar to the way it did for the zombies, but at a faster rate. The plant squealed painfully and fell to the floor with the zombie corpses.

Claire looked at the VAM machine and, seeing its name imprinted on its side, she plucked out the vaccine instructions and her face brightened when it said that the machine was the first step in creating Sherry's G-vaccine.

The instructions also mentioned a cartridge stored away somewhere in that very room. Claire looked around and found it on a table and scooped it up. She then brought the cartridge to the machine and placed it in its slot.

The machine hummed and then stopped when a beep sounded. Claire checked its computer screen and it said that its system controller switch needed to be turned on in order for the machine to operate fully.

They looked around until they found the aforementioned switch panel and Claire immediately pushed its button and the VAM machine began working. Claire anxiously stood next to it.

Later, the machine beeped again and Claire removed the cartridge. There was now a tube inside filled with a white liquid substance and when Claire made an inspection on it, a label was seen attached to the tube that read "Base Vaccine".

The Base Vaccine was step two of their mission. They were halfway there to saving Sherry Birkin.

Claire placed the tube back in the cartridge and took the Base Vaccine with them as they departed from the lab room.

The two came to the hall intersection with the F-4 laboratory where the next and final step to completing the vaccine was in that very room.

They entered and ran all the way to the back of the lab, ignoring the piles of zombie corpses.

A giant tarantula spider appeared from one of the ceiling's shaft, prompting Claire to shriek after seeing its grotesque appearance. The two instinctively raised their weapons and gunned the massive arachnid down.

The spider was now bleeding and struggled to continue standing. Thel took this time to kick it over on its back. He fished for one energy sword and plunged the white-hot, plasma blade into its large abdomen and sliced it open hara-kiri style, killing the eight-legged beast. It twitched its large, hairy legs and bled out heavily. Claire was grossed out by this act, but at least the spider was dead. How she would hate spiders for a very, long time after this.

A machine was seen in the room which was, as the instructions said, meant for depositing the G-vaccine into the Base Vaccine tube.

Claire fished the cartridge from her pocket, removed the tube, placed it inside the machine's container and pressed a switch that activated the device.

The alien and college student stood back and watched as a small window closed itself and observed the machine filling the vial tube with a blue substance that mixed with the clear, white fluid inside and it slowly converted the liquid into a dark-blue color.

During the wait, Claire eyed a document folder on a table next to the active machine. She scooped it up and found that it contained startling information about Umbrella's B.O.W.'s, some she and Thel encountered and some they haven't. If they were going to be here waiting for the vaccine to be finished, she figured that she might as well read the document to kill time until then and so she opened it and began reading. Thel joined her in reading it too.

It had photos of the creatures as well as their names, both technical and nicknames, their creation dates and what they were for besides killing. Just about everything there was to know about them was right there in black and white print.

One of the surprising things they both learned from the document, and it was something that rattled Claire's mind for quite some time, was the cause of dead zombies turning into Crimson Heads. It also revealed the steps to preventing this from happening by means of decapitation or total immolation.

"Well, that explains the redheads." Claire said.

They also read about the Ceberus dogs, the Lickers, the Hunters, the crows, the humanoid plant creatures dubbed "Plant 43" or "Ivies", the giant moth that they have never seen, the large spiders which were nicknamed "Web Spinners", and above all, the stalking, T-103 creature known as Mr. X. Seeing his picture, name and stats made Claire shudder in fear. Mr. X's bio stated that he was created from a line of B.O.W. projects codenamed "Tyrants" and that the Umbrella company had more like him. They were the successors to a previous Tyrant type called "T-002", which happened to be the creature Claire heard about from her brother's story of the Spencer mansion before he left to combat Umbrella. Thel and Claire seriously did not want to have an encounter with more of those Tyrant giants. Dealing with one was bad enough. Two or more? No thanks.

The sewer alligator (which they didn't get to fight) wasn't mentioned anywhere in the file, probably because the Umbrella researchers had no interest in studying T-Virus infection results on it. They probably didn't even know that it made its home in the sewers at all where the viral leak first happened; therefore, the dead reptile was considered an accidental victim. Hell, all Raccoon citizens were accidental victims of the T-Virus.

Further info and pictures were found on other creatures they have not fought with before such as giant amphibian-looking creatures called "Lurkers" and "Froggers", mutant arthropod bugs called "Drain Deimos" and "Brain Suckers", millipede-based monsters called "Grave Diggers", their parasitic offspring dubbed "Sliding Worms", a giant snake named "Yawn", a hunchbacked, female monstrosity whose hands were chained to a pair of wooden manacles named Lisa Trevor, human/fly hybrids known as "Chimeras" giant ticks similar to Hunters but with sickle-like hands, brown skin and twin antennas on top of their heads, monkey-based B.O.W.s called "Eliminators" and another Tyrant creature called "Nemesis-T Type". That last entry got their attention and they read away. Its photo revealed it to be bigger and even more menacing than Mr. X.

The file said that the purpose of this B.O.W. was to enter Raccoon City and hunt down and kill the S.T.A.R.S. members who escaped the Arklay mansion alive as they were, in Umbrella's eyes, a thorn in the corporation's side ever since the mentioned disaster. Since Claire's brother was among the mansion survivors, he was considered a target on the Nemesis' hit list, too. Claire was now glad that Chris wasn't anywhere in town and was considered safe from this freak of nature's homicidal mission.

Well, at least _he_ was safe from it. Claire was completely unaware that right now, a close comrade of her brother's was wandering the city's infested streets, fighting to survive the town's zombie apocalypse somewhere.

One more thing in the file snagged their attention. Additional information was found about a new B.O.W. species called "Nemesis Beta" or "NE-B". Presumably named after the Nemesis monster. A picture of the creature was in the folder and it resembled a spider-like insect.

According to the file, the NE-B is an artificially-engineered parasitic organism that has the ability to merge with, and control, other B.O.W.s by gaining access to a host's central nervous system. To do that, it decapitates the victim's head and latches itself onto the neck stump, replacing the target's head and possessing the body of the host.

B.O.W.s that are controlled by NE-B parasites are much more powerful and dangerous than their regular counterparts as they immediately gain an increase in intellect, speed, durability and strength, especially with zombies whether or not they are Crimson Heads as they would behave like one. The parasites themselves can also spray a kind of pheromone substance that zombies are easily attracted to and any target covered in this type of bile is more likely to be pursued and attacked by nearby zombies, sending them into a feeding frenzy-style behavior. It also said that should a host body be destroyed while the parasite remains alive, it will abandon the corpse and seek out another host unless it is immediately killed.

This made Claire feel uneasy. Crimson Head zombies were one thing, but parasitic-enhanced zombies? She hoped that she wouldn't run into these body-snatching things.

The machine beeped and its window finally opened. Claire put the document aside and grabbed the tube now filled with the new serum.

"We did it! We got the G-vaccine!" she said with glee. They turned around to leave and get back to Sherry.

While coming back to the monitor room again, Claire stopped when she saw Leon and John on one of the screens. With them was a wounded Asian woman dressed in red clothing. Claire guessed that she was the one Leon told her about when she found him hurt and bleeding. They appeared to be in an elevator.

She quickly got out her radio, pressed its talk button and spoke into it.

"Leon!" she said into the radio's speaker.

In the screen, Leon fished out his own radio and spoke into it.

"Claire? Is that you? Where are you?" he asked.

"I'm in the monitor room. I can see you on one of the cameras."

They saw the group in the screen look up and see the camera watching their every move.

"But never mind that right now! I left Sherry in the security office and I need you and John to head over there and watch over her until Thel and I get there! Please, you must help me save her!" she explained.

"Is she alright?"

"She's infected with a dangerous G-virus embryo!" she said.

"What?"

"I'll explain that later. I have a vaccine with me that can save her and we must bring it to her before she dies! Hurry!"

"Alright! As soon as we save Sherry, we're leaving this lab."

"Okay!" said Claire. She deactivated her radio and on the screen, Leon did the same thing and she and Thel started rushing all the way back to the security office.

While rushing through the catwalk area to get to the security room, they saw Annette laying on one of the bridges, mortally wounded and bleeding out.

"Annette!" Claire shouted and ran to her side and knelt down to her. Thel followed, but he remained standing and kept an eye out for enemy creatures.

Annette regained consciousness and saw Claire kneeling next to her. For once, she didn't express fear or anger at them.

"William . . . is getting stronger with . . . every victim he slashes!" she said, struggling to speak what would be her final words. Claire knew right there that her monster husband did this to her.

"Did you . . . get the vaccine for Sherry?" Annette asked.

Claire nodded and fished out the anti-viral serum and showed it to Annette.

"I was just on my way to give it to her. She should be fine once she takes it." Claire assured.

Annette was glad that her only child was going to live, but she was also sad that she wasn't going to be around to witness her eventual recovery. There was one important thing that she ever so wanted to do if she were to cheat death and that was to renounce her ties with the Umbrella company and perform the parental duties she and William rarely achieved with Sherry. Too bad that was going to die with her.

"I'm not going to make it. You . . . must get Sherry out of here . . . before this place is completely destroyed. Tell her that . . . even though I was a terrible mother to her, I have always loved her very much . . . and so did her father." she pleaded.

"I'll let her know that. I promise." Claire said.

"Thank you. Please . . . save her." Annette said. She gasped her last breath and died.

"Annette? Annette!" Claire cried out, but she didn't respond.

How was she going to tell Sherry that her mother was gone and that her mutant father killed her? There was no doubt that this kind of news was going to deeply devastate her. She was now an orphan, just like she and Chris Redfield were when they were kids themselves. Their parents died back when they were younger and they were all they had left ever since.

"Good-bye Annette . . ." Claire whispered and she and Thel resumed their goal of getting back to Sherry.

Making it back to the facility entrance area a few minutes later, they saw John standing guard outside the office, his rifle gun in hand.

He led them inside and they found Leon, Ada, and Sherry on the bed, looking worse than before.

She was resting and she didn't look to be in pain this time. Come to think of it, she was as pale as a ghost and looked like she was about to die any second. If the vaccination was going to be given to her, it had to be now!

Claire quickly sat next to Sherry's limp form, her face and mind worrying here and there.

"Sherry! Sherry sweetie, wake up! I'm here and I got your vaccine! You're gonna be fine!" she assured her.

Sherry opened her eyes again and saw Claire. At first, she thought she was hallucinating, but when she felt Claire's hand squeeze hers gently, she knew it really was her.

Since Sherry was physically unable to sit up or move on her own because of her fever-like condition, Claire had to administer the G-vaccine to the girl herself.

Claire took the vaccine tube out of her pocket and opened it. She arched Sherry's head up with her left hand and raised the tube to Sherry's lips with her right hand and fed the vaccine to her until the vial was empty and Claire let it drop to the floor now that it was useless. It had a nasty flavor like cough syrup, but Sherry didn't flinch from the foul taste because she didn't care for that.

Claire slowly lowered Sherry's head back on the bed and was unresponsive.

Now that she had consumed the vaccine, which she was lucky to receive as it just so happened to be the final one available in the entire complex, the only thing the survivors in that room could do now was wait for the serum to do its job and hope they weren't too late.

During the wait, Claire told Leon about her adventure such as meeting the insane police chief Brian Irons and witnessing his gruesome death(Leon mentally cringed at the mention of his deceased boss) and her knowledge about Sherry such as her relation to Annette and William Birkin and their employment with Umbrella, what became of Sherry's father and her now-deceased mother and Leon exchanged information from his side of things from meeting Annette and how she tried to kill them twice(Leon pointed to his and Ada's wounds to back his story up) and how she received her injury from William. He didn't bother mentioning Ada being a spy because he felt that she (Ada) had already suffered enough.

Sherry was too ill to hear what they were saying, so she didn't hear about the part of her mom dying and her dad being the very creature she was chased and infected by.

Learning about Annette and William being Sherry's parents was shocking news to Leon at first, but nevertheless, he had no quarrel against Sherry for their former loyalty to the Umbrella company, Annette's actions against him or her father's monstrous rampage and attempt at killing him and Ada back on the tram. Like Claire, Leon predicted what Sherry's reaction to hearing about her parent's fates and felt sorry for her.

Claire looked at Ada. She remembered Leon mentioning her when she found him bleeding.

"Ada Wong I assume?" Claire asked the woman.

"You assume correctly." Ada said. "And what may I call you, Missy?"

Ignoring the small nickname she was given, Claire told Ada her full name.

Ada turned her sights toward Thel 'Vadam. She was surprised that there was another individual among them dressed like the Master Chief and assumed that John was the only one of his type.

"Who are you supposed to be?" she asked the alien.

"I am Thel 'Vadam. Ally of him." he answered and gestured to John.

Ada nodded in approval and remained quiet for a while.

A minute passed.

Then another. Then another.

While they were waiting, an alarm suddenly blared out and echoed all over the lab facility. A recorded voice message that sounded feminine was heard.

What it said would horrify all but the Elite and the Master Chief.

**"WARNING! THE SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED! REPEAT: THE SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED! THIS SEQUENCE CANNOT BE ABORTED! ALL EMPLOYEES ARE TO PROCEED TO THE EMERGENCY CAR AT THE BOTTOM PLATFORM!"**

Hearing that announcement made everyone's blood run cold and their stomachs churn.

"Sherry? Can you hear me? Are you feeling better, sweetie?" Claire asked her out of being unable to wait any longer.

Sherry didn't respond. Claire repeated her question and Sherry didn't answer again. She was comatose, making it clear to all of them that her recovery was going to take some time and it couldn't happen here because the laboratory was going to be blown to hell soon. They couldn't stay in the room for very long and they decided to leave the doomed laboratory before they were all toast.

Leon remembered seeing directions on the map before about an underground train yard. He told everyone about it and declared that he should lead them all there and they agreed.

Claire scooped Sherry up from the bed and held her in her arms, her arms and legs dangled from her position.

Claire couldn't carry her bag of supplies because of this, so Ada offered to hold on to her bag until they got out of the lab. She also asked Claire if she could borrow ammo from her bag for her empty handgun and she insisted.

Because Claire was holding the unconscious girl, she was unable to fight off any monsters that might get in their way. John, Leon, Thel and Ada were going to have to provide cover for her and Sherry at all costs until they escaped.

Reunited at last, the group exited the office and proceeded in hopes of reaching their next, and hopefully, final objective: the train to freedom.

Claire followed Leon, Thel, John and Ada whilst keeping her grip on Sherry's unmoving form. They mowed down every zombie and virus creature that appeared and tried to stop them. Leon made a witty comment about the monsters being their farewell party.

They got in the elevator and were about to have it take them to their destination. Rather than take it back to the catwalk area where Annette's corpse was, they pushed a button that they believed would lead them to the train.

Ada caught a glance at the unconscious Sherry and, like Leon, she too didn't condemn the girl for the late Annette's venomous hatred and homicidal tendencies toward her. If she were in Sherry's place, she wouldn't want anyone blaming her for another's errors and crimes.

Claire sympathized with Sherry the most as she knew how it felt to lose a loved one. She and her brother Chris lost their parents when they were kids themselves. Their mother died in a motor vehicle collision and their father was killed in a construction job incident. Ever since then, Chris was all the family she had left and vice-versa.

Claire glanced at Sherry's necklace locket. She remembered Annette saying the G-Virus sample was in it and she knelt down and slowly lowered Sherry to the floor for a minute to open the locket. Inside the pendant was a small picture that showed William, Annette and Sherry all gathered together inside a house and smiling. Claire thought the photo was a heartwarming image.

She pushed the locket's lever and its hidden compartment folded open and the sample was discovered behind it. Claire removed the sample from its spot and closed the locket's door. Claire reared her hand back and tossed the dreaded, biological substance over the bridge.

With the two G-Virus creations now gone, Claire picked Sherry up again and the group headed for the evacuation site.

The elevator kept moving further down (two trips had to be taken because John and Thel 'Vadam weighed a lot in their armor suits and that would have passed the elevator's weight limit alone) and the survivors finally arrived at another balcony area that looked like the previous one, but this time, the room temperature within the area had increased and when they looked down from the very bridge they stood on, they learned the cause; there was a boiling, hot smelting pit below them. Leon's map stated that they were now in the lab's blast furnace room. There were three floors and bridges here and they were standing on the top third floor/bridge.

_I wish I still had my water bottles with me, right now._ Leon thought as he felt the intense heat creep on him like a fog. It was like walking around in a giant, sauna room.

Claire noticed one of her own water bottles in the bag hoisted around Ada. She was about to ask Ada for the beverage, but she looked down at Sherry, who was still unconscious, and chose to save it for her instead. Claire knew Sherry was going to need it more when she wakes up.

Looking around, the group spotted a couple of doors across the third and second bridges. Leon wasn't completely sure if this was the right way and thought that they took a detour.

As they proceeded to check on the area, under the belief that it was a short cut, the radars of Thel and John revealed another incoming, hostile signal. They turned in its direction and spotted the source of it.

The familiar T-103 giant, Mr. X, appeared from a hidden spot of the furnace room's ceiling balcony and dove directly for them from above and landed near the elevator, blocking it from the group and forcing them to back away onto the platform.

"Not him again!" Cortana said.

"What the hell is this guy's problem? I already got rid of the virus sample!" Claire shouted frustratingly, remembering Annette saying what Mr. X's goal was before.

Ada heard about this thing before and knew just how dangerous his kind can be.

Getting a good look at the Tyrant, John noticed that Mr. X looked like a complete wreck than the last time they met and fought. He'd been broken, beat and scarred all over by something or someone other than them and just as tough and powerful as the Spartan himself. The T-103's human-like head and face had bruises, bloodstains and a black eye and his chest and stomach area, as well as his back, revealed a large, darkened scar as if something had deeply stabbed him.

John and Cortana obviously knew that, despite their first confrontation with the behemoth humanoid, Thel 'Vadam was responsible for roughing up the B.O.W. and giving him the large scar.

Everybody except Claire armed themselves, ready to fight off Mr. X.

"Come and get it, Trenchy!" Leon taunted.

_'Trenchy'?_ Ada thought from hearing Leon's nickname for the man-like being. It sounded goofy to her.

Mr. X hopped down from his spot and onto the bridge, staring at the survivors. His blank, ghostly uncaring eyes drifted toward Sherry Birkin who laid helpless in Claire's arms. He spotted the gold locket around Sherry's neck and made it his priority to kill her and steal it, believing the G-Virus sample to still be in it even though he was far off of being correct.

Claire knew what Mr. X was thinking and she became terrified for Sherry more than for herself. She slung Sherry over herself, letting the girl's arms wrap around her shoulders and upper back. It would be easier to carry her like that than the way she did previously.

Rather than rush at them at point blank like he always did before, Mr. X crouched down and made a tremendous leap in the air for his young target and everyone immediately fired their weapons at him.

The team backed further away and Mr. X made his landing, missing Sherry and causing Claire to fall backward with Sherry now laying on top of her. She was lucky she didn't lose her grip on Sherry and caused her to fall off the bridge.

To protect the modern earth civilians, Thel and John attacked the Tyrant up front at the same time by latching onto him with wrestling-style holds and restraining him almost completely. The idea was to either hold him down long enough for Claire, Leon, Sherry and Ada to make a quick getaway or heave him over the bridge and down into the furnace pit below.

Mr. X furiously tried to break free of the suited combatants, but no chance. Their strength and toughness matched his own. His sights were still locked onto Sherry's precious locket.

His struggle, along with the combined weight of the three, caused the bridge to rattle and vibrate. No one knew for certain how much weight the bridge they stood on could withstand before finally breaking.

While the Tyrant's plans on killing them were postponed for the moment, the others couldn't decide whether to stay and continue shooting at the foe to help in killing him or try to sneak past the fighting figures and head back to the elevator.

After some time, Mr. X lost his footing and he finally stumbled over the catwalk bridge. Thel and John released their grips on him to avoid following him down. Before anyone could cheer, Mr. X managed to clasp his right hand around John's arm at the last minute and yanked him over the bridge. Both of them were now making their descent below.

The bridge shook again, this time from the alarm sequence, and what happened to Mr. X also happened to Ada as she stumbled over the railing. She grabbed onto a bar on the bridge's underside with her bad arm, out of reflex, and called out for help. It was a reflection of earlier when Annette shot her.

John and Mr. X crash landed on the lowest platform that floated just a few inches above the deadly magma pool. Unlike the bridges, the platform floor had no protective railings anywhere on its edges.

John made a perfect landing upon touching the ground while the Tyrant creature crashed flat on his back, producing a medium tremor effect on the area.

Back above, Leon dropped his bag and ran over to help Ada again, but unlike last time, he was too late and she unwillingly let go and fell. Ada crashed on the edge of the second floor before continuing her nasty fall and landed hard on the platform where the Tyrant and the Master Chief were seen recovering from their own landings and were getting ready to fight each other again.

John spotted Ada lying on the ground, hurt and coughing from the shock of landing.

"We have to keep Ada away from him Chief, so finish him off and fast!" Cortana said and John intended to do just that. As long as Mr. X was here with him, he couldn't threaten the survivors. But with Ada with them now, two things were now in jeopardy: her life and the timeline.

While looking down, Thel tried to decide whether he should assist John in the fight or continue his duty of escorting Claire Redfield to safety along with the other humans. He wanted to ask first and so he activated his helmet's radio.

"Come in, Spartan. Do you require assistance from me or shall I lead the survivors to safety?" he asked.

"Don't worry about us, we'll stay and handle the target from here and protect Ms. Wong. In the meantime, escort those people up there directly to the evacuation train, A.S.A.P." Cortana said and Thel's radio went off.

Back up on the bridge, everybody heard Cortana's order from Thel's transmission and wanted to leave immediately, but another option soon crossed their minds: climb down and help John with the hostile B.O.W.

Sure, he was capable of handling himself and taking on Mr. X as he had done before, but Claire and Leon thought it over and realized that even though all of the above was true, neither of them just wouldn't feel right about ditching the Master Chief. After all they had done for them and Sherry throughout the night, they felt that they had to go against the order and return the favor.

"I gotta go help him and Ada." said Leon.

"Wait, what about-" Claire began to say as she picked herself up off the ground and cradled Sherry on her back piggy-back style. She was trying to remind him of what Cortana told them to do and talk him out of his plan.

"It's best if you get Sherry out of here. Somebody's got to look after her now that she's an orphan and you're the perfect one for the job. Besides, she trusts you completely." Leon said.

If Sherry were conscious, she probably would have begged Claire to stay with her.

Claire knew he was right and she promised to call and wait for them as soon as the train was found. Because Claire was carrying Sherry, she offered Leon her own weapons and supplies in order to help in killing Mr. X and he accepted.

"Keep them safe, big guy." Leon told Thel and he agreed.

The college girl and the Elite watched as Leon looked around for a ladder to use and made his descent to the battlefield.

With that done, Claire and Thel quickly left the area to seek out the train station. Claire trusted in John to keep Ada and Leon safe. Her alien bodyguard was once again in charge of terminating any B.O.W creatures that came into their sights.

Making it to the second floor, Leon stopped to place both his bag and Claire's bag down and he equipped his magnum and Claire's submachine gun and stocked up on enough ammo for both weapons. He decided not to use Claire's grenade launcher because it was too heavy for him to hold properly with his injured arm just like the flamethrower. He was just getting used to holding his shotgun again and didn't want to stress his shoulder any further.

The furnace's temperature increased as he resumed their climb down. Jeez louise, was it boiling hot! With this temperature, one can probably host a barbecue party here.

When he made it to the final floor, he saw John attack Mr. X with a flip and a swing his machete to behead his enemy, but he missed as Mr. X blocked him off.

He saw Ada still out like a light on the edge of the platform and he quickly rushed to her side.

"Ada! Ada, wake up! It's me!" he said frantically, shaking her, but not too rough.

Ada groaned, and coughed again trying to catch her breath after having the wind knocked out of her.

"L-Leon . . .?" she said, slowly opening her eyes and seeing blurs in her vision.

"Ada! Thank god you're still alive!" Leon expressed and started helping her up.

Ada's vision returned to normal and she saw not only Leon holding her, but the Spartan commando doing battle with the Tyrant that brought her and him down here.

"Should we help him out?" Ada asked, pointing to the Master Chief and holding her side with another hand.

Leon looked at the battling titans and then at the ladder. It was destroyed during the scuffle and with the other spare ladder above and beyond reaching distance, they were stuck on that platform and the only one who could get them out was John.

"After all he did for us, I think it's fair that we do that. Besides, we can't reach that ladder on top of us and he's the only one right now who can float us out of here" he said and offer her a choice between his magnum or Claire's submachine gun. Ada declined since she still had her own handgun with her in her holster.

After clearing her head from her dizziness, Ada checked her weapon for ammunition before heading into the battle.

They aimed their weapons at Mr. X and opened fire. All they were missing was the tune "Charge!" and the scene would be complete.

Mr. X turned and saw the spy and the officer being the cause of the shooting and growled at them in anger. His coat absorbed the shots and left him unharmed since it was completely bulletproof. It could, however, be penetrated by Thel's energy sword as indicated by the gash mark on his chest. It was too bad he was not here to repeat that.

"Leon! What are you doing here? We told you to head for the train." Cortana said as John struck Mr. X in the face with his right elbow.

"I didn't feel right about leaving you guys behind with that asshole after everything you've done to help us survive this whole zombie mess!" Leon said. He and Ada had to raise their voices due to the noises of the churning machines and bubbling pit.

"So, we've decided to repay you by helping in killing the Tyrant, one way or another!" Ada finished for him.

Mr. X got up and tried to strike John with a powerful haymaker strike. He missed again as John was too quick and was shoved hard from behind and almost toppled into the boiling lava pit.

"Well, their minds are set, Chief. Might as well take their offer, Right?" Cortana said.

John looked at Cortana's image in his HUD and nodded in approval.

Rather than try to attack the Spartan soldier again, Mr. X got up and headed straight for Leon and Ada. He didn't care that he was being shot at by them or that he was being chased down by their large ally. His right arm shielded his head and face from their barrage of bullets as he kept dashing in their direction like an angry rhinoceros.

"Move, move, move!" Leon shouted and he and Ada narrowly avoided being tackled by the giant behemoth and probably getting knocked into the unforgiving pit. Due to the fact that no safety railings were built down there, the fight was even more dangerous than ever.

During that moment, Leon lost his footing and tripped, dropping his magnum and almost losing it to the magma pit and nearly spraining his ankle.

Seeing Leon hurt, Mr. X approached the fallen cop and lowered his right hand closer to Leon. He was going to pick him up and either throw him off the platform or crush his head in like an apple with his tremendous grip of death.

John moved to save Leon, but then he saw Ada raising what appeared to be lipstick. She pressed her thumb against a button on the cosmetic item and, to his surprise, its front end fired like a bullet and stuck to Mr. X's back.

The Tyrant stopped with his attack plan and turned his head to see what hit him and in two seconds, the embedded lipstick exploded, showering him in a mix of fire and shrapnel, little flames were seen on the back of his trench coat.

Mr. X stumbled and fell to one knee, struggling to recover from the explosion.

John went in to check on Leon while Ada walked over to Mr. X, a stern look on her face.

Ada aimed her gun at the Tyrant's exposed head with confidence.

"Just another one of Umbrella's failed experiments." she said and prepared to open fire on the weakened B.O.W.

Before she could pull the trigger though, Mr. X jerked his head up in time to see Ada getting ready to shoot him and he quickly grasped his hand around her gun. Even with her hand and weapon clamped, Ada still managed to fire off a shot which struck Mr. X in the face.

While blinded with pain and blood, he raised her up and violently chucked her across the platform like a bag of trash.

Ada yelled as she sailed across the air and slammed right into the pole holding the platform together, received a painful, electrical jolt from the pole's computers and other technical stuff when her landing destroyed them and dropped to the floor. She was in even more pain than ever.

Leon cried out and rushed to her while John proceeded to continue dealing with Mr. X.

The Master Chief dodged a few fist swings from Mr. X and used his machete to slice the creature's left hand off. It took two tries because of the thickness of Mr. X's glove, but he succeeded and the severed hand fell to the ground and twitched uncontrollably like an insect.

Occupied with his facial injury, Mr. X failed to notice John walking up to him, swinging his machete in a clockwise, circular motion. He tapped Mr. X on the shoulder to get his attention and when the titanic foe turned around, John raised his machete with one hand and buried it directly into Mr. X's forehead and skull like a knife to a melon. The blade was buried deep into the Tyrant's head.

That being the final straw of the fight, Mr. X backed up dizzily close to the platform's edge, his bleeding eyes rolled up to where the soldier's machete lay embedded, blood trickling down from the mortal wound, and he unknowingly slipped and fell right into the boiling moat. John pulled his weapon out of Mr. X's head right before he fell off.

He thrashed about in the pit, trying to either escape his burning, hellish bath, grab at the Spartan soldier or both as he slowly started to sink in the liquid.

John stood at the edge of the platform, staring down the T-103 as the lava pool swallowed him up completely.

Back on the platform, Leon knelt down to Ada and cradled her in his arms, taking a quick peek behind him when he heard John approaching after achieving another victory over the T-103 creature and turned his attention back to Ada.

"I think . . . he really did me in this time." Ada said weakly.

"No way! You survived a gunshot and a lashing, you can make it!" Leon said, cradling her head. As of now, Ada Wong had received three life-threatening injuries and it looked like this third one just might do the job of killing her.

"There isn't much time left, Leon. You must leave without me . . . this whole place is gonna blow." said Ada.

"No, not without you!" Leon said. He really didn't want to let her go.

"It's strange. I barely know you . . . but I knew you'd say that." She gasped in pain from her injuries.

They leaned their faces toward each other and, before they knew it, they were sharing a passionate kiss. Unlike with John Clemens who Ada kissed before but as part of keeping her cover, she actually enjoyed this one.

They released their lip lock, both wishing that it would never end.

"Favor . . . returned . . ." Ada said and her eyes slowly closed and she was "gone".

"Ada? Ada!" Leon shouted to her, shaking her to wake her up like he did before. She didn't answer.

_No! She can't be gone! She can't be!_ He thought, denying the death of the woman he wanted to be with. He didn't give a damn if she was a spy or not.

"We should get going, Leon." John said. He and Cortana gazed at each other through his helmet HUD, knowing fully well of Ada's true status and what she was going to do right after they leave. They hated keeping what they knew a secret from Leon for now, but they vowed to let him know the instant they left the lab alive. Besides, they would meet again in six years and beyond.

Leon sucked it up and accepted without protest even though he wanted to. Part of him wanted to remain with Ada, not caring about dying in the eventual blast or that they should bring her with them, but he thought that that last part would have been disrespectful to her.

His radio beeped and Claire spoke.

"Leon, it's me again. Are you there?"

"Yes." he said.

"Glad to hear you're still alive. Thel and I left to find the train and we did. We're waiting for you, so hurry!" Claire said.

Leon hesitated for a moment due to his grief from Ada's so-called death before giving an answer.

"Alright . . . we're on our way." he said and turned off his radio and put it away.

"Let's go. We've got a train to catch." he said.

He gently lowered Ada's body from his arms and proceeded to leave the room with the alien and Spartan.

_Good-bye Ada. I'll never forget you. _Leon thought as he glared at Ada Wong one final time before leaving. She looked so peaceful and beautiful.

Seeing only one ladder available and the other one destroyed, John helped Leon up via his hover pack. Leon took back his inventory bag while John retrieved Claire's bag, and they left the blast furnace.

Leon and his comrade finally caught up to Claire and Thel who were standing in front of a large, metal door that was now cut open and broken down thanks to the alien. Sherry was still the way she was. That vaccine she drank must have been very strong to knock her out like that.

"Where's Ada?" Claire asked and Leon sadly informed her of Ada's "death" at the hands of Mr. X. Claire didn't know what to say and Leon chose to mourn for Ada at a later time, right now he had to concentrate on getting out of here with Claire and Sherry.

They entered a place that contained rows of huge, capsules filled with weird orange fluid and more unused B.O.W.s in each one. A large, elevator platform was seen at the far end of the area that would lead escort the group to their needed destination.

Claire ran up ahead and quickly pressed the button to call in the elevator. While the team stood and waited anxiously for its arrival, a giant figure suddenly dropped in from the room's ceiling and landed in front of them.

It was the same "G" monster they all fought with from the platform lift to the lab. The very creature that everyone except Sherry now knew to be William Birkin, better known as the scientist who created the G-Virus that made him what he is now.

William was in the same four-armed form he appeared as when Thel 'Vadam severely wounded him during their last battle aboard the elevator platform that brought them here. It seemed that he had fully regenerated the limbs that Thel cut off. To John, Leon and Cortana, this was new to them. Last time they saw William, he had only two arms, one regular-sized and the other jumbo-sized.

"It's William!" Claire said and she quickly turned her head around the room to find a spot to hide Sherry from the monstrosity that was once her father.

William noticed Sherry's limp form and he was about to charge after her, eager to finish his work. All but Claire raised their weapons and opened fire on William, hoping that their attack on the monster would provoke him into targeting them instead to spare Sherry from harm and the plan worked.

Thel quickly tossed his Bubble Dome device to the ground and told Claire to place Sherry in it. She did and the bubble shield activated around the girl. Claire hoped that the bubble shield would last long enough for them to kill William. A piece of debris from above fell over the dome protecting Sherry. The debris deflected off the dome's top and slid off. Claire saw this and breathed a sigh of relief.

The "G" creature swung his large talons at the survivors and missed each hit.

John unloaded his assault rifle on William and Thel did the same with his plasma rifles. Leon and Claire participated in the fight, too. Claire used her submachine gun and Leon used his magnum.

The monster reacted to the painful gunfire from all four attackers with agony as the bullets from Claire, Leon, and John's weapons pierced his infected flesh like bite-sized daggers while the plasma energy from Thel's Covenant-built weapons burned and melted into whatever part of the monster's body they touched like acid.

At some point during the battle, G-William was brought into a weakened state and knelt down while bellowing in pain, giving everyone a short time to stop and reload.

Leon's magnum went empty and he switched to his shotgun and Claire took out her grenade launcher and started loading shells into it, preferring to use explosive shells to dish out additional damage to the target.

While those two were busy, Thel switched to his energy swords and dashed to the injured beast, determined to finish him off permanently.

William noticed the Sangheili coming and raised his arms to try to brush him off. Thel ducked away from an incoming swipe and sliced off one of the creature's arms and dodged another swipe from the other arm before stabbing him in the stomach and severing that one too.

He swung his sword at William's large head to kill him, but William strongly shoved him away with his remaining arms, causing his energy shield to deflect at 34 percent and for him to land back.

With some help from John, the two grabbed William's arms and wrists and together, they pulled and pulled until the targeted appendages were brutally ripped right off.

William screamed louder than ever before and he bled heavily from where his arms were torn apart.

With William seriously injured, Thel raised his swords and viciously stabbed the "G" abomination countless times, eleven as a matter of fact, and the monster squirmed and jerked his entire body violently and fell backwards. Dark red blood flowed from everywhere the alien's sword blades entered

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief after witnessing William's death.

Claire took this time to check on Sherry who was still laying dormant on the floor underneath the dome.

A slimy noise echoed and the survivors saw something going on with William's corpse.

It was during this time that the former scientist began to undergo another mutation. Not only did his limbs and wounds regenerate, this time he transformed into a four-legged form. He increased in size, the large rows of teeth on his chest became his new mouth and three more giant eyeballs appeared on his two front limbs and on his left back leg. He resembled a giant dog or lion now.

"Holy crap! Is this what that G-Virus does to people!?" Leon shouted after feasting his eyes on the new behemoth of a monster standing before them.

Claire remembered what Annette Birkin said earlier about the G-Virus's ability to heal even the most crucial wounds and injuries of its hosts. As of now, not even Thel 'Vadam's actions with his weapons were enough to end the very dangerous G-Virus B.O.W.

With the transformation finished, the newly-turned G-Birkin creature leaped for the band of survivors. He was now faster on all four of his new limbs than he was on just his legs.

Claire barely managed to jump away when William dove for her and he crashed into one of the large tubes, shattering it. The liquid content inside the tube spilled all over William and he shook it off in a manner a pet does when wet.

The group opened fire on William again and, in a twist, he leaped away and onto one of the walls and started running across the wall and soon onto the ceiling as his new form now permitted him to cling to surfaces like a spider or a bug. That, combined with increased speed, made it difficult for Claire or Leon to get a perfect shot at William. But that wasn't enough for him to evade the gunshots from Thel and John as they took perfect aim and didn't miss a single shot they hit him with.

Having enough, G-William stopped suddenly above them and, from that angle, he made a heavy dive for the two futuristic soldiers. While he missed the Master Chief, he landed on top of Thel 'Vadam, locking him underneath his grotesque body mass. Everyone watched as the ferocious B.O.W. lowered himself to grasp the alien in his enlarged jaws to either consume him or swing him around like a chew toy. He dropped his gun during the pounce attack.

The others resumed shooting at William to help Thel out. The monster was bleeding again, but this time, he ignored it as he was too focused on his new prey.

Enraged, Thel took out one energy sword on his right hand and used it to stab at the creature's chest repeatedly and he sliced the mouth parts holding him away to free himself, causing the enemy to reel back momentarily. During this moment, he slipped out from his spot and activated one of his plasma grenades and attached it near William's head just near the upper side of his hideous mouth and he warned the survivors to move back as the grenade beeped and prepared to detonate. William hastily struggled to remove the glowing, blue bomb, but he couldn't.

Claire told Leon to seek cover as she remembered Thel doing this to Mr. X. Sherry was already safe under Thel 'Vadam's bubble dome, so there was no point in telling her the same thing, especially since she was still out like a light.

Thel and John simply stood back and didn't bother to protect themselves from what was about to happen.

Blood and chunks of flesh sprayed everywhere from the explosion that now left William in another state of weakness and great, bodily injury. The mutant scientist bellowed in pain and collapsed to the floor, moaning and unable to get back up as he was too weakened and hurt to resume fighting.

Thel and John wiped away the splattered flesh and blood from their suits. The bubble shield protecting Sherry deactivated and Claire immediately ran to pick her up again when she and Leon came out of their cover spots and they all cautiously approached the fallen G-monster.

"He's gotta be dead for sure." Leon said. More blood leaked out from William's underside.

Thel inched closer to the beast, his sword in hand along with the other that was now active. When asked by Leon what he was going to do, Thel said that it was just to ensure that William stayed dead and the Sangheili raised his swords and brought them down on where the creature's head was supposed to be and beheaded the foe completely with three criss-cross style swipes. Even more gore gushed out onto the ground. Unlike John's machete weapon, Thel's swords disintegrated anything that touched the blades instantly, making them clean from every drop of blood it drew from the town's creatures.

Another beep from the elevator was heard, signifying the elevator's arrival.

Its large doors slid open and the survivors immediately made a scramble to it and rode it all the way down into the lab's lower depths. This time, the elevator was able to carry all of them, including Thel and John. The ride resembled an amusement park ride or a water slide.

Because the elevator platform was wider and faster than a normal elevator, Claire clung Sherry close to her body harder.

The elevator had soon brought them all to an area where they unearthed a large train yard and two trains were just a few feet ahead of them, set and ready for transporting them away from the soon-to-be vanquished Umbrella lab.

The computer voice repeated its irritating message and the lab shook again to prove its point. It was like the thing that wouldn't shut up.

"Time to go!" Claire said and they sprinted toward their destination, but in a straight line due to the cramped hallway they were in.

The trains came into view more as they got closer. Claire and Leon couldn't believe right there and then that they have survived the zombie apocalypse that plagued the city and cost the lives of thousands of people victimized by the T-Virus.

As they were approaching their only ticket to freedom, John and Thel detected more signals heading their way and they were moving in on their position fast, like Crimson zombies or the new "parasite zombies" Thel and Claire read about.

Pretty soon, they were faced with a sudden ambush by an unknown group of six people dressed in black, military uniforms, leather gloves and boots and they were armed with guns, grenades, knives, ammo clips and wore masks over their faces. All of the soldier trained their weapons at the group, Leon, John and Thel all raised their own weapons at the enemy group of soldiers in response.

"Wait! We're not one of those things!" Leon said in an attempt to reason with them. His finger touched the trigger of his handgun.

Seeing these people jolted Claire's memory of the lab video of the two soldiers that tried to assassinate William Birkin and stole his research. All but Claire, Thel and Cortana were unaware that these troops were not here to aid them in their escape, but to kill them all as part of their orders.

She slowly backed away and behind the three, hoping to keep Sherry out of their sights.

"The Umbrella Security Service! I forgot to mention them! Sorry, John." Cortana said with regret. Nobody heard her because she fixed John's helmet at the last second to allow only him to hear her voice. She knew about the Umbrella Security Service and what their purpose in Raccoon City was. She also knew about their rivals, the Spec-Ops Field Unit, who were sent to counter their mission and destroy Umbrella, but her story about both factions was going to have to wait until after they leave the facility.

One of the soldiers spoke to Leon.

"We know that. We're here to exterminate you all and retrieve that Birkin child you have as she is of vital importance to us. Hand her over right now and your deaths will be quick and painless." the man explained.

"No way are any of you taking Sherry! We won't let you!" Claire said sharply. Like always, she was very determined to protect Sherry at all times. She wondered why they wanted her so badly.

Leon and the war veterans all stood firm, ready to back Claire up in defending Sherry and themselves.

"Have it your way, then!" the soldier spat. He and his teammates prepared to fire. The only person they were going to spare was Sherry. Everyone else, according to their orders, was to be terminated.

Since Thel's bubble dome device was not fully charged to be used again, John quickly dispatched his own shield prop near Leon, Claire and Sherry and Cortana instructed them to take cover under it and to leave the black ops soldiers to John and Thel until further notice.

Knowing he was right and that engaging the Umbrella soldiers would put them at risk more than their escorts, Claire and Leon agreed without question and allowed the dome to activate over them. Out of harm's way, the three stood in place and watched. Trusting the dome's resistance to gunfire and other forms of damage, Claire carefully placed Sherry down next to her to give herself a break as well as her and Leon's item bags.

"Open fire!" barked the soldier and they unleashed a hail of bullets at the group. Their weapons didn't affect the energy dome protecting its occupants or the two futuristic individuals who were now advancing toward the hostile soldiers, the bullets flicking off their armor and energy shields.

Those unlucky Umbrella troops were about to learn the hard way what it was like to battle a Spartan soldier and a Sangheili warrior.

John approached his first target and swung his machete at the man's left leg. The soldier yelled in pain and stumbled over, his leg bleeding. John, unfazed by the gunfire tagging him from the other troops, hoisted the unlucky soldier up by the throat with his right hand, causing him to drop his assault rifle, and snapped his neck in a jiffy. John tossed the body away and moved on to his next victim whom he killed by slicing off the soldier's right arm, stealing his gun and killing him with his own weapon.

Thel 'Vadam killed an enemy trooper by blasting him to death with his plasma rifle and disemboweled another with his bare hands. He didn't want to do this to any of them, but with the lives of Leon, Sherry and Claire at stake, what choice did he have?

Another soldier latched onto him from behind in an effort to choke him out with his rifle. All that did to the alien warrior was spark his armor shield and piss him off. Thel flipped the target over on the ground, leaving the front side of him exposed, and brought his right foot viciously down hard, the force from his armor weight breaking the human's back bones, ribs and fatally crushing his heart and lungs. He spat out blood(some of it leaked through his gas mask) before passing away.

Soon, only two U.S.S. operatives were all that was left of the Umbrella platoon. Both ceased fire, they were stunned and terrified by the epic, combat skills of the armored fighters and how fast it took for them to wipe out a third of their squad. To John and Thel, the soldiers were barely a threat to them with or without weaponry. The troops now eagerly wished they were fighting against zombies than these two.

One of the two troopers got an idea, hoping it would save their lives and grant them victory.

"Flashbang out!" he yelled and hurled a small, flashbang grenade device in front of the Sangheili and the Spartan. John intercepted by grabbing it in mid-air and threw it back to its owners. They yelled in a panic and quickly scrambled to find cover, but they were too late. The grenade went off and the bright, deafening blast blinded everyone, including Claire, Leon, and the Master Chief and the Arbiter. Thel and John's recovered faster from the ordeal than everyone and disposed of the black ops soldiers. The soldier fighting John whipped out his combat knife and tried to stab the super soldier with it, but John blocked the attack, drove his left fist into his victim's stomach, and used his machete to sit the man's throat and stab him in the chest while the final soldier Thel dealt with was held in place by the alien's hand tightly gripping his left shoulder.

The pain from the Elite's mighty grip intensified enough to force the U.S.S. member down on one knee and groan loudly from the experience. He felt like his shoulder was going to break any second. The trooper balled his right hand into a fist and tried punching Thel in the groin and stomach to free himself. When his fist struck Thel 'Vadam's suit, the action caused even more pain to the unfortunate foot soldier; the bones in his hand and wrist fractured like glass on the third hit. Thel placed his plasma rifle close to the hostile operative's face and fired, melting the target's entire face and head until his mask and skin were dissolved and nothing but blood and bone were revealed.

Thel withdrew his hand from the body and let it fall.

"Whew!" Cortana said.

John's bubble shield deactivated itself, allowing its occupiers to roam free. The Master Chief went over to Leon and Claire's arsenal bags and took them so Leon and Claire could assist each other in moving Sherry. Leon hoisted Sherry by her arms and back and Claire held her by the legs.

John wasn't worried that the short battle against the Umbrella soldiers would affect the future. Those people were probably supposed to die anyway, but by other means. What's done is done.

Thel opened the entrance door to the train closest to them and John hoisted the bags up and then himself. Claire asked one of their escorts to hold Sherry so she and Leon could climb aboard the train easily and John agreed to it.

Sherry was handed over to the Spartan and he held her with no problem. Seeing a red cushion bench in the train car, John walked over and carefully laid Sherry on it and turned his attention to the others.

Thel was about to hop aboard when he turned and spotted six more soldiers rushing to the train yard. Like with the dead soldiers before, these newcomers were also armed and dangerous.

"More of those soldiers have made their presence here!" said Thel.

Seeing the new threat, they all gathered their weapons and hopped off the train to confront the soldiers. With John's bubble dome unavailable for a few minutes, Claire and Leon were going to have to stand and fight without the device's protection.

The new soldiers wore uniforms that were similar to the killed troops, but wore different masks over their heads and faces. Three of them were men and the other three were women. The patches on their uniform shoulder patches informed the survivors that these people were also affiliated with the Umbrella corporation along with an extra patch on their uniforms that revealed these people to be part of a faction of the U.S.S. called "Wolfpack".

Cortana, of course, already knew about them, too.

Their names(or rather, their codenames) were "Spectre", "Lupo", "Beltway", "Bertha", "Four-Eyes", and "Vector". They appeared dirty and exhausted, suggesting that they too have dealt with the town's undead problem.

"Stay the hell away from us!" Claire angrily shouted to the Wolfpack team, her hands aiming her handgun at them. She and Leon sensed that they were here for Sherry, just like the previous U.S.S. operatives were.

Before any hostilities could begin, something huge dropped in from one of the balconies above the ground and startled everybody. The interfering enemy happened to be Mr. X again, but this time, he was completely different. He no longer wore his green trench coat due to it melting away from his "bath" thanks to John-117. His body was burnt all over and above all, his left arm was now a large claw. His right arm, while bare and burned, retained the same size and shape.

"Aw, hell! Not another Tyrant model!" said the soldier called Lupo.

_'Another one'? There's more like that thing?_ Leon thought after hearing Lupo's statement on Mr. X. Unlike Thel and Claire, neither he, John, Cortana or Ada, came across the B.O.W. document back in the F-4 lab room and therefore, never got the chance to learn about Mr. X's background or the project he was designed from.

It was apparent that the two sides of survivors didn't exactly know whom to target first, the mutated T-103 or each other.

Mr. X roared a mighty roar, something he hardly did before, and raised his large claw to prepare to attack the survivors.

Then, all of a sudden, something burst from the ventilation shafts on the area's walls and ceiling, grabbing the attention of the survivors and Mr. X. Dozens of parasitic-looking creatures came crawling out from those same vents, made it to the floor and charged for the groups and the Tyrant creature. Claire and Thel recognized the little spider-like things from the B.O.W. file, they were the NE-B parasites.

While the survivors got ready to shoot at the parasites as well as Mr. X, they were in for a surprise. The NE-B creatures were not going for them (not yet anyway), they were all targeting Mr. X!

From their spots, neither person moved or spoke as they watched the small, NE-B army crawl on and attack Mr. X from all over. The Tyrant fought off the parasites as best as he could in a fit of rage. He managed to kill a few of the little guys by squishing them and tossing them away. He clutched one parasite organism and crushed it in his hands like Thel did with some of the infected crows when he first entered the city's police building. But sometime during the brawl, the parasites eventually overwhelmed Mr. X and caused him to fall on his knees and then onto the ground.

While it looked like the little creatures had done away with Mr. X for the people, things didn't quite end there. Some of the NE-B parasites began slicing away at the flesh of the fallen Tyrant and burrowed themselves inside of his body.

It was a disgusting sight to behold for everyone.

Mr. X awakened with a look on his face expressing anguish and pain He bellowed an angry scream, then he started convulsing for a few seconds like if he was having a seizure, and then he got back on his hands and knees and before anyone knew it, he screamed again as two large, parasitic appendages burst out from his back. They looked like giant tentacles. The other parasites that didn't dig into Mr. X crept back as the Tyrant started to double in size, frightening all except Thel and John. Even the remaining parasites were fearful of the new abomination. Mr. X was so huge, the train yard was probably, as of now, the only place he could freely move about in. His new mutation made him a much bigger threat(in terms of size and power) than any B.O.W. any of the survivors had faced, figuratively and literally. Hell, as of now, he even surpassed William Birkin in size. But that remains to be seen.

After the sickening mutation concluded, the B.O.W. used his new, massive tentacles to stand up and move around like an octopus and he turned his attention to the two groups staring at him in shock and awe, ready to kill them all.

Forgetting their differences, the survivors and the Wolfpack unit had no choice but to cooperate against the new Super Tyrant threat. Claire, however, was asked that she climb back on the train to ensure Sherry's safety should the Wolfpack soldiers try to kidnap her during the battle and she did. She closed the door shut and remained inside with the child while her allies stayed outside to fight off the new threat.

"Just peachy! That's the fourth Tyrant model to turn on us!" Beltway said under his breath.

It was going to be an all-or nothing battle over Sherry Birkin's fate as well as their own. Other than that, they had to kill the parasite-controlled monstrosity in under ten minutes before the laboratory was brought down.

* * *

**Well, there ya go. Another chapter written and ready for reading. Sorry it took me so long to post it. I wanted to figure out where to place certain scenes and characters to keep the story intact and I wanted to think of ways to mix the RE2 scenes with scenes from RE: ORC and Darkside Chronicles. For example, I wrote the fight scene against Mr. X in the blast furnace room area in the Darkside Chronicles version since Ada's "death" by falling off the catwalk bridge after being shot by Annette was prevented by the MC. It made sense to me to use that part instead. Half of this chapter was a major headache to do, I even had to retype almost everything several times to try getting everything as right as rain.**

**For those who wished to see a run-in between the RE2/Halo characters and Wolfpack as well as the appearance of the Super Tyrant from ORC, your wish has been granted. Now both sides are gonna have to deal with the new and improved Mr. X first before proceeding with each other.**

**While the final battle will happen, it's going to have to wait until later because, before I go any further with wrapping up the story's RE2 side and beginning the RE3 side, I want to write a chapter that will feature both the Halo crew again and the Wolfpack team. I plan on revealing, in the next chapter, what Wolfpack went through to show up in this chapter's ending, and perhaps a little encounter/scuffle between them might be in my imagination storage. Will it kick ass or will it kick ass? So hard to choose . . .**

**As I said at the start, I've made a few changes to the chapter. What you see here is all I've got.**

**Peace.**


	12. Operation Raccoon City

**Here's what I've got for Wolfpack's horrendous mission in Raccoon City that will lead them to their encounter with Leon, Claire, John-117, Thel 'Vadam and the new Super Parasite Tyrant. The Echo Six team will also make an appearance and have their side of the story told too before both sides meet and fight each other. I also plan on having the Halo crew show up and meet the two sides. **

**A few notes on this chapter: The timelines for each side are different at first but they will match eventually. I guess you could say that this chapter is a midquel/re-telling of some events from RE3 and ORC and**** even though in the original RE3 game Jill's fight with Nemesis is set at a different time(I don't know when)and she wakes up hours or a couple of days later after being infected, let's just say that here, it's around the same time, the part where she and Nemesis fight. The timelines between RE2, RE3 and ORC are so confusing and since ORC is more of a "what-if" to those titles than a canon entry in the series, I suppose anything can happen here, right? Still, I'll do my best to match most of the settings here to how they were in the games.**

**Because this chapter covers almost all of ORC, it's gonna be a loooooong tale.**

**Up first is Wolfpack.**

* * *

_September 1998:_

_In Umbrella's Raccoon City facility, a betrayer collects the last of his life's work. His name is William Birkin and he plans to sell the newly-created G-Virus to the American government for a high reward. The Umbrella Security Service has been sent in to neutralize the threat the rogue scientist's actions pose to Umbrella Inc._

_U.S.S. Delta Team, codenamed "Wolfpack", has been deployed to assist Alpha Team. Their orders are to rendezvous with Alpha Team leader "HUNK" and support his infiltration into the complex._

_The use of lethal force has been authorized . . ._

* * *

Within the confines of an underground laboratory owned and operated by Umbrella, a mechanical door slid open and in stepped six armed individuals, all of them belonging to the Delta Team faction of the Umbrella Security Service. This group of people were also known as "Wolfpack".

They stopped in front of a large metal door which was the entrance to the facility. For a while, none of them said anything and waited.

This team of black ops Umbrella soldiers was made up of three men and three women. Their names were Karena Lesproux, Michaela Schneider, Vladimir Bodrovski, Christine Yamata and Hector Hivers. The real name of their sixth member, however, was classified.

During missions, these people went by codenames for reasons involving personal privacy and/or achievements they have done that earned them their names. Karena was called "Lupo", Michaela called herself "Bertha", Vladimir went by "Spectre", Christine was named "Four Eyes", Hector was known as "Beltway" and the one without a civilian name was addressed as "Vector".

Each member of this black ops squad unit had a different specialty they were personally skilled at. Lupo, for instance, was the team's assault specialist and leader, a position originally meant for Vector who lost it to her and accepted it eventually. Vector was on recon. Bertha was the group's medic. Spectre worked on surveillance and was their designated marksman. Four Eyes was their field scientist and Beltway was on demolitions, a position he surely enjoyed.

Another thing that made Wolfpack dangerous and different from other Umbrella-affiliated groups were the unique abilities and technology they all possessed. Some were similar to super-powered characters one would usually find in works of fiction.

For example, Vector's uniform was designed to allow him or any other wearer to become completely invisible. Nobody would be able to see him without the use of thermal vision technology. While his cloaking ability would give Vector an advantage against his enemies during battle, it did have its cons, though. The technology wouldn't be able to fool most B.O.W. creatures because they could still sense him no matter what and it doesn't last long when active for an extended amount of time. If he were to perform a stealth tactic on an enemy, human or not, he would have to do it quickly before his cloak wore off and revealed him.

Lupo's suit had a function that enabled her entire body to be completely resistant to physical harm for a short while. All forms of attacks, projectile and melee, would be useless against her until either it wore off upon expiration or if she deactivated it herself.

Bertha carried with her a hypo needle gun that was capable of firing several, special chemical drugs. One of these drugs permitted her to cleanse any victim or herself of the T-Virus upon infection or deal damage to those who were already fully mutated by the virus and another drug increased the accuracy and movement speed of herself or anyone of her choosing, or reduce the amount of physical damage dealt to anyone. While they would prove to be of good use later on, they were also limited and would have to be conserved and used when needed.

Spectre wore a mask over his face that allowed him to see everyone and everything in different vision modes such as bio-thermal vision, sonar vision and something called "threat scanner". His bio-thermal vision let him clearly detect heat signatures of living targets and distinguish their physical status before, during and after a confrontation by the color markings covering their bodies. His sonar vision allowed him to see and target anyone through walls and other solid objects, like x-ray vision, and his threat scanner pretty much functioned like his sonar vision, but it also posted whatever foes it found onto a miniature radar built into his wrist computer.

As with Bertha, Four Eyes also had a hypo gun containing chemicals that allowed her to either infect human enemies with samples of the T-Virus or to convert B.O.W.s into allies and bend them to her will and command them like hypnotized slaves. She also had grenade-like items that contained a pheromone chemical in them that, when used, expelled a gas that attracts monsters and causes them to act out in the manner of a riot or a feeding frenzy like sharks. Anyone unlucky enough to be covered in this gas would automatically become a target of interest for nearby B.O.W.s.

Beltway didn't exactly have any special abilities like his teammates. Instead, he carried explosives that were quite different from regular explosives. His equipment was designed to be twice as powerful and capable of causing greater destruction than a regular stick of dynamite would. To him, this was all he wanted and he didn't mind not having the fancy technology and drugs like the other Wolfpack soldiers did.

Upon reaching the facility's entrance, Lupo made a call on her radio.

"Wolfpack to Alpha leader, we're in position." she said.

"Copy, Wolfpack. Standby. Just need to take care of something first." said a voice from the radio. It was the leader of the team Wolfpack were sent to assist in the mission.

Sounds of grunting and stabbing were audible from the opposite side of the door followed by the loud sound of a bone breaking. He was busy killing someone.

Soon, all was quiet.

The giant door slid open sideways and Wolfpack were greeted by a man dressed in black, military clothing and wore a gas mask similar to Vector but the mask had red eyes. The eyes of the man's mask made him look like he was possessed by a demonic ghost. He was the leader of the U.S.S.'s Alpha Team, Vector's past mentor and the one known to Umbrella as "HUNK". Like Vector, this top-ranking soldier's real name was also unknown to most people.

"You guys must be the new Delta Team. Report." he said to them.

Beltway stepped up first. "Name's Beltway. Nice to meet ya, 'Mr. Death'." he said, addressing HUNK by a nickname the Alpha Team leader went by due to his reputation of always returning from missions as the sole survivor of whatever team he was assigned with. HUNK always figured that he was just lucky.

"Spectre here. All set."

"Call me Four Eyes. At your service."

"Vector here. Good to see you again, sir."

"Call me Lupo. Delta Team squad leader."

"My name is Bertha. Ready to play."

With introductions finished, HUNK reported to their superior of the mission, known to them as U.S.S. Command.

"Command, I've rendezvous with Delta Team." he said.

The voice belonging to the commander of both units answered.

"Understood. Now find Birkin and secure those samples. Failure is _not_ an option."

"Roger that, Command." said HUNK and he turned to Wolfpack. "You heard him. Let's move."

The U.S.S. operatives stepped inside an elevator, the same elevator HUNK took to get to Wolfpack and closed its doors. Before entering, they noticed the bodies of two men whom Wolfpack correctly assumed HUNK killed, explaining the battle sounds they heard prior to meeting him.

During the ride down into the lab, HUNK took this time to inform Wolfpack what he knew about their upcoming assignment.

"We're entering the lab of Dr. William Birkin, an Umbrella scientist attempting to sell classified samples of a weaponized virus strain to the U.S. government."

"You mean Umbrella's T-Virus?" Bertha asked.

HUNK shook his head. "No, this is a new gene-altering compound Birkin's developed called the 'G-Virus'. It's significantly more powerful than the T-virus and he's in possession of the only known samples. There's also a detachment of Umbrella's Biohazard Countermeasure Service on site who will likely try to protect him as Birkin's hired them as his personal bodyguards. They are all unaware of this operation and are considered expendable."

"Wait, aren't we on the same side? Couldn't we just pick up the phone and call?" Beltway questioned, confused about how they and the U.B.C.S. could be enemies despite them both working for Umbrella.

"The U.B.C.S. are just mercenaries, they can be bought. We can't just assume their loyalty to the company just because they also work for Umbrella like we do." HUNK told him.

"So what's the objective?" Four Eyes asked.

"We intercept Birkin and secure the G-Virus however we can." HUNK answered, patting his assault rifle to make his point clear.

The elevator stopped and opened its doors and the seven soldiers exited and were now inside the underground facility.

The lights in the room they were in suddenly flickered on and a voice recording of a female orientation narrator spoke up throughout the area.

**"WELCOME TO UMBRELLA."** it said.

"Alright, weapons live . . . we're ready for action." HUNK said and they got ready.

_Finally, the good stuff's about to go down._ Beltway thought.

HUNK went ahead and opened another sliding door.

"It's open. Let's go!" he said and he and Wolfpack stepped inside and the door closed shut behind them. There was no turning back now.

As HUNK put it, their only targets were William Birkin and his G-Virus samples. But to get to him, they needed to get past his U.B.C.S. bodyguards first. Despite there being only seven of them(Wolfpack and HUNK) and who knows how many of them (Birkin's hired guns), the Umbrella soldiers were determined to succeed in their mission no matter what happens.

The seven Umbrella soldiers walked down a staircase that led them to a place with large capsules containing inactive Hunter B.O.W.s, all of which were shown dipped in green fluid. Wolfpack obviously knew about these the creatures and how dangerous they were and hoped their business inside the facility wouldn't wake them up and double the danger for them.

"Ohhh, those don't look nice." Bertha said, staring at the slumbering creatures. No way did she, HUNK or Wolfpack ever want to face these things during the mission.

"Come on, let's keep moving." Vector told her.

The team got a better view at the underground lab as they kept walking. It was enormous. Everywhere they looked, there were computers, extra green capsules further ahead and several staircases and balcony bridges above. Although they didn't know when this place was built, what they did know however, was that it cost a hell of a lot of money to do it.

An explosion interrupted their thoughts.

"Take cover!" said HUNK.

The group crouched behind a steel barrier near the capsules and saw that they were under attack by people from the U.B.C.S., William Birkin's personal bodyguards as HUNK mentioned. These guys spread out everywhere from the floor to the upper balcony bridge and began shooting at the U.S.S.

Utilizing their combat training, the U.S.S. troops returned fire at the opposing unit and it took at least seven minutes to vanquish all of them before proceeding through the area.

But it was far from over as more showed up and forced HUNK and Wolfpack to battle them.

"Put a frag on those troops!" HUNK shouted while shooting.

Vector complied by taking out a grenade from his side belt and hurled it toward the enemy soldiers. The U.B.C.S. members who stood near where the grenade landed began to turn and run, but the grenade had already exploded and killed three unlucky ones. One of them had a large chunk of his body blown off in a gory fashion.

The group, with the exception of HUNK, moved forward, taking down several of Birkin's bodyguards.

"HUNK," said U.S.S. Command. "we've got a location on Dr. Birkin. He's just entered his lab. Get in there and obtain those virus samples!"

"Roger Command. Proceeding to Dr. Birkin's lab." HUNK answered. He caught up with Wolfpack to tell them what he now knew.

"Stay focused. Birkin's already set up an exchange with the U.S. military. We may run into Special Operatives before this is over." he warned them.

A large door ahead of the group slid open and in stepped three more armed U.B.C.S. personnel.

Outnumbering their foes 7-to-3, the mercenaries were killed and the U.S.S. sweeped through.

Before leaving, Vector spotted a Remington shotgun from one of the dead men. He picked it up and offered it to HUNK who refused it and Vector decided to keep it anyway, believing he could use the extra firepower.

Another U.B.C.S. guard was spotted standing near a corner, facing away from the intruders.

This person didn't appear to notice their presence or show signs of alertness from hearing the gunfight from earlier because he wore headphones over his ears with a wire leading in his uniform's vest pouch where a portable CD player was shown. The soldier appeared to be lost in whatever tunes he was feeding his mind with when he was headbanging lightly.

What a bad time for one to be distracted by music.

Taking advantage of the situation, HUNK removed his combat knife and walked toward the man without bothering to use sneak tactics since his target was too distracted to notice. When he got close enough, HUNK kicked the soldier on the backside of his right leg to make him drop down and slit his throat.

The victim dropped to the floor dead and his headphones slipped off his ears. The music he was listening to was barely audible for HUNK and Wolfpack to hear though they didn't care. It appeared to play death metal music, how ironic.

"Don't forget your training. If they get too close, use hand-to-hand combat." HUNK said to Delta Team.

It also occurred to them that with HUNK being the last of his unit, as he always was as Beltway put it with the mention of his second name, he supposedly knew the whereabouts of their target and they didn't, therefore they were going to have to protect him from all enemies throughout the mission. Without him, finding Birkin was going to be hard for the group.

They turned a corner and met four enemy soldiers and killed them with concentrated gunfire and a few CQC attacks.

When Bertha engaged a hostile soldier with her melee weapon, a machete blade, she swung it underhanded like a tennis racket and managed to hack the blade against the soldier's crotch area. The unfortunate mercenary immediately dropped his assault rifle and let out the most powerful shriek he could muster.

Bertha's teammates were very shocked by what she had done. Even HUNK was surprised.

Bertha still had her hand gripped on her weapon's handle and the wounded soldier clutched at the blade that was still embedded in his groin, unable to speak even one word. Blood seeped from the wound and his mind spiraled uncontrollably from the endearing pain. Neither person was willing to make a move yet.

"Let me show you a little trick to take your mind off the pain, yes." Bertha said and finished her victim off by removing her machete from its spot in a slicing manner much to the soldier's painful displeasure and stabbed him through the stomach.

The victim screamed again, his voice growing weaker in time and he fell to the floor to die of his wounds.

"No way is this guy ever gonna have any kids where he's goin'!" Hope he got laid before 'cause he ain't gonna be doing that ever again." Beltway joked darkly. He was known to have a sense of humor in a dark fashion.

Everyone moved away from the scene and came across a lounge area meant for employees to take breaks during their shifts and found another soldier standing in the same area they did. Out of habit, Wolfpack prepared to shoot him, but HUNK prevented that and informed them that it was just his backup partner from Alpha Team.

Looking closely, Wolfpack saw for themselves that the person was indeed part of the U.S.S. He was wearing the exact same uniform and mask as HUNK.

HUNK led Wolfpack down the stairway and met up with his accomplice, introducing him and Wolfpack to each other and then asked the man if others from Alpha Team were here and he said yes. It turned out that, other than this soldier, HUNK wasn't the only one of his team here. But sooner or later, something was bound to change that as always when HUNK was around. HUNK knew this and accepted it. It were as if being around him was practically lethal bad luck.

Suddenly, an alarm blared and the whole room began to illuminate with red lights.

Then a computerized voice spoke loud and clear.

**"EMERGENCY! THERE HAS BEEN A SECURITY BREACH! AVOID CONTACT WITH UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL!"**

Lupo asked HUNK if they tripped the alarm and he shook his head.

"That wasn't us. We're using authorized access. We might have company." he explained.

**"REPEAT: THERE HAS BEEN A SECURITY BREACH! AVOID CONTACT WITH UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL!"** the voice said again.

"We should get going." said HUNK's partner and he, HUNK and and Wolfpack entered the door the second Alpha Team member was seen standing next to.

The computer message repeated and the group ignored it.

HUNK took point and led everyone through a few hallways and corners until they finally made it to the lab chambers of William Birkin.

As the U.S.S. members quietly entered the lab and approached where William was suspected to be, they heard him speaking from behind a wall, unaware of the team's presence just outside of his chambers, ready to breach in and steal his viruses.

"It's sheer-perfection. My precious G-Virus. No one will ever take you away from me." he said in a trance-like state, indicating that he was alone and talking to himself. It also made him sound almost lunatic.

_Until today, Birkin._ HUNK thought grimly as he and his partner walked up to the lab's door with their submachine guns clutched tightly and ready to shoot..

Before proceeding, HUNK turned to Delta Team.

"Guard this door. Do not let _anyone_ approach." he ordered plain and simply.

The Wolfpack soldiers nodded in understanding and left HUNK and his subordinate to do their jobs as they opened the door, entered inside and raised their weapons at their target.

"There he is!" said HUNK's partner.

"So, you've finally come." said the voice belonging to Umbrella scientist William Birkin who remained unseen to Wolfpack.

"Doctor, we're here to collect the G-Virus sample." HUNK told the scientist.

The lab door closed, sealing Wolfpack away from the confrontation, but they could still hear the conversation going on from their spot and they turned their backs to the door and stood guard as instructed.

"Sorry, but I won't just hand over my life's work." said William. Wolfpack figured that William was a goner anyway considering that he was vastly outnumbered 8-to-1.

Delta Team barely flinched when they heard something fall and shatter with machine gun fire erupting afterward in the lab that was followed by screaming they assumed was coming from Birkin.

"Stop! You might hit the sample!" HUNK was heard saying and Wolfpack knew that it was his accomplice who fired the shots.

"That's it, alright. This is HUNK. We've acquired the 'G' samples. Okay, let's move out!"

Now that they've gotten hold of the G-Virus samples, both units were to report back to Umbrella HQ right away. With William Birkin down, he was of no concern to the team or Umbrella any longer and they decided to just leave him to die of his wounds rather than kill him. They figured it would've been a waste of ammo.

As Wolfpack regrouped with the two Alpha soldiers and prepared to leave the lab, another door opened, or was breached to be precise as it was blown down forcefully, and more enemy soldiers arrived. They happened to be the escorts Birkin called in earlier to retrieve the G-Virus samples. Too bad for him, they came too late.

"Birkin's military escorts have arrived. Neutralize 'em!" HUNK said.

"We'll take these guys, sir!" said Vector.

Gunfire ripped through the air and penetrated the walls of the small hallway.

A few grenades were exchanged and caused a mess of debris. Blood was spilled on the floor and walls.

The alarm kept blaring and the computer voice kept repeating the same old message it was programmed to play.

HUNK appeared from behind Wolfpack after the firefight ended. A briefcase was seen in his hands which held the stolen viruses.

"Looks like you had some company. Follow me." he said and led them to a large elevator platform with the Umbrella company logo painted on its floor.

"Let's go! Everyone on board. We've got a mission." HUNK said and when they all boarded the platform, Lupo activated its switch from its side panel and the entire platform whirred to life and started to ascend.

As they waited to arrive at their next spot, HUNK decided to contact another team he worked with.

"Goblin 6, what's your status?" he asked into his radio.

"The upper levels are secure. All above ground escape routes are on lockdown. Waiting for you, sir." said a voice.

"Copy that." HUNK said.

After that, they each got an incoming transmission from U.S.S. Command.

"Have you retrieved the sample yet?"

"Affirmative. Heading to the rendezvous point now." HUNK said.

"Understood." said Command.

The platform halted when it reached its destination and the group stepped out and looked around for enemy troops and found nothing.

All of a sudden, a massive scream was heard that surely didn't sound human one bit.

"The fuck was that?" Beltway asked, terrified out of his wits though he tried to conceal it.

Not sure himself, HUNK motioned for the team to follow him and his partner through a wide corridor. Each of them fearing that whoever or whatever yelled like that wasn't too far away from them.

Three more soldiers from Alpha Team were seen from across the hall from HUNK and Wolfpack and joined up with them in leaving the facility for good.

As they ran, a wall nearby broke down and heavy footsteps were heard.

HUNK's partner turned around to check it out and was stunned to witness the arrival of a giant, humanoid-like abomination with a mutated right arm and a gigantic, bulbous eye on the creature's right shoulder. It was chasing after them and was wielding a large steel pipe in its right hand.

The man was too afraid to react as the creature swung its pipe weapon at the petrified soldier and knocked him away, sending him flying through the air and landing on another one of the Alpha members with brute force.

HUNK turned around, saw the commotion and fired his gun at the monster which proceeded to deliver a strong uppercut attack on him with its pipe.

He was knocked back and landed on the ground. His gun fired off a few uncontrolled bursts at the ceiling during this and one of the bullets ruptured a pipe above that released a spray of hot steam. It didn't seem to faze or harm the monster as it kept walking through the steam without notice.

It was also during this moment where HUNK was assaulted that his briefcase containing the "T" and "G" viruses hit the floor and opened on its own and all of the virus tubes fell out and shattered upon impacting the ground with the exception of two, one with the G-Virus and one with the T-Virus.

The T-Virus tube was stepped on and crushed by the hulking creature while the G-Virus tube rolled over to HUNK's hand who, unlike his Alpha comrade, survived the unexpected encounter. Getting up slowly, he quietly stared at the monster walking away and disappearing into the steam mist. It had no idea that he was alive and he wanted it that way until the matter was settled.

_Is that who I think it is . . .?_ HUNK thought.

HUNK took the leftover G-Virus tube and put it away in his vest pocket. He looked around for the case and found it wide open along with the destroyed virus tubes on the ground. He also found the remnants of the T-Virus tube the creature crushed and saw its contents leaking into a hole in the ground.

"That's not good." he whispered and stood up and departed in a direction opposite of the monster which he guessed by now, was after Wolfpack.

Meanwhile, Delta Team barely came across the rampaging monster and were shocked by its appearance. It was, in fact, William Birkin. They guessed that he infected himself with the G-Virus before or after their raid on his lab and it transformed him into the freakish monstrosity standing before them. Seeing Birkin like this also made Wolfpack realize what the G-Virus was capable of doing to its victims, just as HUNK said before.

HUNK arrived and found Wolfpack in the same presence as the G-creature, just as he figured.

"Wolfpack, let's move! Cover me!" HUNK ordered. The group managed to escape through another hall corridor and slammed its door shut to prevent the beast from following them, leaving the few, remaining Alpha Team soldiers to their fate with the abomination.

Another roar echoed and the team immediately picked up the pace.

Screaming and gunfire were heard from a far distance, telling Wolfpack and HUNK that the Birkin monster had already found and done away with the others and would now be hunting for them next.

"Come on! Don't forget your objective!" HUNK said.

They ran down the corridor with all their energy, evading spewing flames and bursts of steam that erupted from the piping systems. Rubble from the ceiling poured down on them, a possible sigh that the dreaded "G-Birkin" creature was closeby somewhere.

A door with a valve handle was seen ahead and HUNK got close enough to open it first and let Wolfpack inside and followed them in and he closed the door and sealed the valve handle up tight even though that wouldn't do any good as Birkin would just break the door down with his virus-enhanced strength.

"_Scheisse!_ Nowhere to run!" Bertha said when the team came across another valve door that refused to open when she tried to.

Vector and HUNK tried forcing the door open with no success.

A familiar, angry roar and footsteps echoed in the same corridor as them and they all turned their heads and spotted G-Birkin heading their way. The large eye on his shoulder squirmed around and he was dragging his pipe weapon on the floor.

"Fuck, he's coming!" Vector shouted.

A plan of escape formulated in Beltway's head and he quickly took out one of his mine explosives and planted it on the door. He was going to blow the door open, but he had to accomplish it fast before the rampaging former scientist reached them and butchered them as he had done with HUNK's Alpha Team.

Until the door was open, the surviving U.S.S. unit felt they had no choice but to deal with Birkin right there and they started shooting at him except Beltway who was busy setting up his bomb.

G-Birkin flinched from the gunfire and swung his pipe around to try deflecting the swarm of bullets hitting him. He was inching dangerously close to them as the fired rounds did nothing to slow him down.

After he finished his work, Beltway told everyone to step away from the door, which meant moving somewhat toward their target's direction which they did slightly, and Beltway detonated his bomb and the door was blown open instantly, allowing the team to slip in and run like hell as G-Birkin had by now gotten near enough to begin his assault on them by grabbing HUNK with his free hand and hurled him aside and through a wall with a gap inside. He wasn't seen afterward.

Birkin roared again and slammed his pipe against the ground and the group kept running as their enemy repeated their action, only he was faster than them.

"Shoot that eye of his to stun him!" Lupo said.

Two of their own turned and quickly fired at Birkin's mutated eye. Lupo's idea worked as the beast stopped and stumbled back from the pain his giant eye endured.

He struck his weapon on the ground again and charged at them while roaring.

Spectre saw a red drum barrel on the left side of the corridor during the run. When the group reached a far distance from Birkin and the barrel, Spectre turned around, waited for Birkin to approach the barrel and when that happened, he fired three shots at it. This caused the barrel to explode and douse Birkin in flames.

As a result of the blast, the area behind Birkin was sealed off by crumbling debris. Birkin noticed this, but showed no interest, all he cared about was killing the fleeing U.S.S. soldiers.

"We can't get away from him!" Bertha shouted as the team kept shooting at Birkin. One of their shots harmed his eye again and that, combined with a burst of hot steam, caused him to stumble and fall down.

As he started to get up, Four Eyes and Lupo each threw a frag grenade at him and the combined effect afterward made G-Birkin collapse again and gave him severe burns and blew off a chunk of his back flesh.

The two women and Beltway thought this would weaken and kill the "G" monster, but then they were stunned to see Birkin's injuries healing themselves like magic, including his back. Within seconds, his entire body was clear of all burns and his back was fully regenerated. It was as if the grenade blast never happened.

"The G-Virus can heal its host of all injuries with fast acceleration?" Four Eyes questioned.

"No wonder Birkin infected himself with that stuff after we took him down!" said Beltway.

Another doorway was opened and the group quickly sought refuge inside and shut the door. Rather than plow through and continue chasing after them, Birkin instead retreated and left the corridor path.

He was gone and Wolfpack were safe, but not for long. They had to rendezvous with HUNK and escape before Birkin finds them again.

"Delta Team, get out of there and regroup with HUNK!" Command ordered.

Just then, a door from another part of their new safe haven opened and in came more U.B.C.S. soldiers. Joining the fight were a pack of infected Cerberus dogs which proceeded to attack.

The U.B.C.S. personnel had trouble focusing on both the virus hounds and Wolfpack, thus turning the tables on them and making victory easier to achieve for Wolfpack.

Of course, after the soldiers were all dead, Wolfpack had to kill off any surviving dogs as they would have eventually targeted them.

Vector wandered off in search of an escape route for the team and was suddenly ambushed and knocked down by another infected dog and struggled to get it off as it barked and tried to bite the man wildly.

He kicked it on its stomach area, stunning the dog, took out his combat knife and buried it into the side of the dog's neck, puncturing its jugular vein. The dog howled, bled intensely and collapsed on its side and died.

Birkin's scream was heard again, alarming Wolfpack of his incoming presence and they left the area and were back out into another corridor.

"HUNK, where are you?" Lupo asked in her radio.

No answer came.

She tried again and no response was made.

"You think he's dead?" Four Eyes asked her.

"Of course not. He's the fuckin' 'Grim Reaper'." said Beltway, using another one of HUNK's nicknames.

"Maybe his radio got damaged from his stint with Birkin." Spectre suggested.

"Perhaps." said Lupo.

Another hostile dog was spotted and killed and Wolfpack made it to another safe spot with extra ammunition in a box and a laptop computer sitting on a desk. The laptop had only scientific jargon on its screen and none of them had time or the will to read it.

As they moved, another band of enemy troops came along and were dealt with. One survivor among them tried to fight them off, but before anyone from Wolfpack could kill him, a brick wall on the Spec Ops member's right and Wolfpack's left burst open and the cause happened to be Birkin himself.

Vector, who was nearby during this event, was knocked down by tremor of Birkin's sudden rush-in along with the enemy soldier.

Mentally paralyzed at the terrifying sight of the infected scientist's appearance, the soldier couldn't defend himself as the creature targeted him first by pummeling him to death with his pipe, allowing Vector to quickly get up and flee with his team following suit.

Hot steam bursts blew around everywhere as the troops kept running from the pursuing G-Birkin. Every step he took from running felt and sounded like a small bomb going off.

Lupo was the first to reach the end of the current corridor and she quickly opened the door and the group and herself rushed right in.

Birkin followed them, destroying the entrance due to his enormous size.

The next corridor was filled with more bursting steam pipes, but now they were accompanied by fire traps and Wolfpack had to take great care when crossing the path.

Their giant enemy on the other hand, experienced little problems getting past all the fire and steam traps. All he did was run right through them, ignoring the burning pain his mutated body suffered from the traps.

As Delta Team made it to the end and were about to go through the next door, it suddenly opened itself and HUNK stepped out. They were relieved to see him alive.

"Come on! Birkin injected himself with the G-Virus. There's nothing you can do. Get out of here and make a full report to Management." he said to them and shoved them through the door.

Vector turned to him and asked, "What about you, sir?"

"I lost the sample when I got separated from you guys, so I'm going back for it." HUNK told him. Despite everything that had transpired in the facility, HUNK refused to fail his task and was dead set on finishing it.

Getting what he believed was one final glance at and conversation with his former mentor, Vector nodded in agreement and disappeared along with Wolfpack. HUNK shut the door and locked it, trapping himself in the corridor with the mutated William Birkin who was approaching the Alpha Team leader and survivor, bellowing savagely and walking toward HUNK. He raised his pipe to battle with the man who nearly murdered him, stole his research and made him what he was now (even though that last part was his own doing in order to avoid dying).

HUNK approached the mutant, his assault rifle aimed and prepped to shoot.

Meanwhile, as Wolfpack ran for their lives, they noticed HUNK was not with them, unaware of what he said he was going to do as they didn't hear him from all the roaring and pipe burst noises outside.

"Where's HUNK?" Four Eyes asked.

Gunfire echoed from behind them, indicating a fight between the Alpha Team survivor and the giant beast.

"He said he was going back for the G-Virus sample. It's just him and Birkin now." Vector answered.

Not daring to go back as HUNK ordered, not that they could since he locked the door from the other side, Wolfpack ran until an escape route was discovered and took it. Despite their failure to steal the G-Virus, at least they were safe from Birkin's homicidal wrath.

HUNK was not heard from soon after and he was assumed to be K.I.A.

* * *

**After the T-Virus hit Raccoon City and the population's reaction to the undead epidemic . . .**

* * *

"U.B.C.S. Team 4 . . . report."

"Command, we're seeing a lot of R.P.D. and civilian activity in the downtown area . . ."

"Team 5 reporting, gunfire near the hospital . . . Command, we have positive contact!"

"Understood, move to contain."

"Ma'am, please calm down. What is the nature of your emergency."

"They're trying to get in the windows! Please help us!"

"Oh my god! They're in the house! Run! Run!"

"Ma'am? Ma'am!?"

Our line is breached, we can't hold them off . . ."

"They're everywhere!"

"Containment has failed! We need extraction!"

* * *

**At U.S.S. Headquarters . . .**

* * *

_"The failure to contain the virus samples has left Umbrella in a precarious situation. HUNK is not responding. The U.B.C.S. wing has deployed their forces._

_To ensure Umbrella's survival, the story of what happened must never be told; we need to make sure the truth dies along with each scrap of evidence and every survivor._

_Umbrella Security Service Task force, commence 'Operation Raccoon City'._

* * *

It has been days since that night in the underground lab where the U.S.S. Delta Team raided the facility, made an assassination attempt against Dr. William Birkin, stole and lost his G-Virus and other virus research samples, witnessed the G-Virus's horrific metamorphosis on Dr. Birkin himself, and lost contact with HUNK.

Because of Birkin's rampage throughout the underground facility, Raccoon City had soon became lousy with disease from the T-Virus outbreak. Under orders by Umbrella, Delta Team were thrust back into Raccoon City to destroy any evidence linking the company to the epidemic. If word of the nightmarish incident were to go public, the Umbrella corporation would be ruined and vanish from the face of the Earth forever.

Arriving in the city by helicopter, Wolfpack were dropped in one section of the city while other helicopters containing U.S.S. soldiers were dropped in at different sections of the town.

The instant Wolfpack set foot on the ground, they grabbed for their weapons and began their mission by making their way through several dark alleys and once on the streets, they each saw for themselves the horrors that the T-Virus has done to the city since their mishap in Dr. Birkin's lab facility.

Everywhere they looked, sickly zombified people walked the streets, looking for victims to feast on. This was the first time that Wolfpack had laid eyes on T-Virus infected humans. They saw Cerberus dogs, Hunters and William Birkin back at the lab, but they were completely different, especially Birkin as he was mutated by the G-Virus instead of its predecessor that created the monsters they were looking at right now.

Seeing the Umbrella soldiers, the zombies began to limp and shuffle their way toward them, raspy moans escaping their throats and Wolfpack fought back by shooting them all dead. More took the place of the ones killed and the team just kept shooting and running.

Disgusted at what had transpired in the town, Wolfpack nonetheless, resumed their mission. They were only two goals they had to accomplish during their temporary stay here: destroy all evidence pointing Umbrella out as the sole cause of the deadly outbreak and find and kill all survivors in the city, including those who worked with the Raccoon City Police Department, as they were all considered to be witnesses and are therefore grave a threat to them.

After taking refuge in a building, the Wolfpack team took a short break inside to think up a plan on completing their mission and escape Raccoon in one piece. They were lucky to have made it out of William Birkin's lab after he infected himself with the G-Virus and went berserk before, but this time, they were going to need more than luck to stay alive.

"Let's move out. Our objective, City Hall, is up ahead." said Vector.

"Umbrella is making us responsible for this 'accident'." Spectre said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Man, I can't believe Umbrella's blaming us for the outbreak." Beltway said.

"Yes, and that's why we are being redeployed. Let's hope things go according to plan." Lupo said.

They took a door.

"Command will not be happy with us until we can assure them they will not be connected with the outbreak." Vector commented.

The area they explored was too dark to see and Spectre used his mask's night vision mode to help him out and guide the team around.

With Spectre taking point for now, they carefully walked through a hall until they got far enough from any danger to stop and contact U.S.S. Command, which Vector did.

"Command, position 1 reached." he said.

"Position confirmed Wolfpack. Proceed into the 'Cold Zone'." said Command.

Communication ceased and Delta Team continued on. They would eventually learn that the outbreak was more than they can chew on.

They passed by a large, steel door and found discarded junk and another dead person, a woman whose entrails had been violently removed from her body and dry bloodstains were seen near the corpse. It was nothing the team hasn't seen before.

Wolfpack started walking up the room's stairs and a noise was heard, making them all suspicious and alert.

"Heard something." Beltway whispered.

"Quiet . . ." said Spectre.

It was heard again, but this time it was more. It was the sound of moaning, meaning one thing and one thing only: zombies.

"There's something up ahead. Weapons ready." Lupo said and they all got ready to shoot their way through the unseen threat.

Spectre adjusted his mask to see through their surroundings and found zombies limping around in a room just up ahead of them. Of course, this room was beyond the one the team approached, so the first was safe to enter.

The Russian man warned the unit of his recent discovery and they opened the door to the first room which was empty as Spectre saw and crept up to the second one where the undead creatures were in.

Bertha went up ahead with her gun ready and quickly kicked the door open and as expected, the zombies attacked the group starting with the first zombie lurching at Bertha since she was the closest.

The German woman struggled with the zombie as it yanked her into the room and she shoved it away and killed it with a clear headshot. Soon, the other B.O.W.s joined it in permanent death.

Wolfpack made their way through and found more zombies gathered altogether consuming another body and they too were dead within seconds.

Later on, a computer room was breached and they confronted more zombies.

When that was over, the group began moving toward what they believed was an exit and were met by a man dressed in military clothing, gray hair on his head and was now aiming an assault rifle at them.

"Hold your fire! He's U.B.C.S." said Lupo after she recognized the lone man who proceeded to introduce himself after he and Wolfpack lowered their weapons.

"I am Nicholai Ginovaef, U.B.C.S. D-Platoon B-Squad." he said to them.

Both sides said nothing for a moment before Nicholai spoke up again.

"You're Umbrella's Security Service? Upper management must be in a panic if they sent you."

"Save it. What are you doing here?" Lupo asked.

"My team was sent here to rescue citizens, but there's no time for that. City Hall is a mess. I'm trying to find a safe zone." Nicholai explained.

"Oohh, running scared already?" Bertha sassed.

Hearing Nicholai's statement, Lupo felt she had to counter as well as ask him what happened. "There's no safe zone. What's going on in there?"

"City Hall is crawling with infected and some unidentified personnel. They're looking for something." he said while walking his way around the Wolfpack members. "Why? What are you doing . . .?"

"We ask the questions here." Vector said. He turned to Spectre. "Think this guy's a loose end?"

"I say . . . we silence him." Spectre suggested.

The others were starting to agree with that until Lupo objected.

"He's U.B.C.S. He'll get himself killed somehow just like everyone else. she said, remembering the other soldiers of that unit who tried to kill them back in William Birkin's laboratory. To her, all U.B.C.S. members were like death magnets.

The French woman looked up ahead at the area behind Nicholai. "We've got orders. Let's move." she said and the others obeyed and began walking away from Nicholai.

"All the best with your mission." Nicholai said without looking at them and he too started walking away, leaving Wolfpack on their own.

_Whatever, jerk-ass._ Beltway thought. There was something about Nicholai that the demolitions expert didn't like, but he just couldn't place his finger on it.

Just then, they got another call from Command.

"The City Hall building has been locked down. Access the security room and override it."

"Copy that, Command." said Four Eyes and they kept moving forward.

Soon, they entered a place that was, as Nicholai said, occupied with zombies.

It took no more than a minute and a half to kill them all.

One zombie among the crowd was seen devouring the remains of another zombie, much to the disgust of the team except Spectre. Human or not, it was still cannibalism, which was ironic because the killings at the Arklay Mountains a few months back before the Specner Mansion incident were once referred to as "cannibal murders" by the media and press.

Spectre knew what his teammates were thinking right now and felt he had to say something.

"Try surviving the Soviet winter and maybe you won't be so quick to judge." he told them blankly before killing the "cannibal" zombie. His comment was a hint that he once indulged in cannibalism before to survive a life-threatening situation back in his homeland. That event has haunted him ever since.

The zombies were gone and Wolfpack were free to explore the premises. They found and gathered more ammunition and medical sprays and with nothing else and nobody but them around, Wolfpack left through a large, wooden double door entrance.

Several people, all human, suddenly sprang up from the room and attacked the team.

"Oh shit! It's a fucking ambush!" Beltway yelled and they all took cover behind some pillars and metal crates and returned fire on the enemy unit. They happened to be Spec Ops soldiers.

As the firefight was underway, they received another call by their boss.

"Government forces have already entered the area. Do not let them secure that evidence!"

A number of Spec Ops men went down. Lupo decided to take this opportunity to activate her uniform's ability, the one that would make her temporarily invulnerable to harm, and when that happened, she ran out into the open and went trigger-happy on her enemies. All gunfire from the Spec Ops soldier's weapons deflected off her while she on the other hand was able to harm them all to the fullest.

Moments later, Wolfpack emerged victorious over their enemies, but that was just the beginning.

"I suspect there will be more of them." Spectre said cautiously.

"He's right, so don't get sloppy. That won't be the last of them." Vector said, backing up Spectre's statement even though he wished it were false.

It turned out to be true as additional Spec Ops personnel barged into the main area via the upper balcony and engaged Delta Team who did the same.

One enemy combatant was shot and toppled over to the bottom floor where he was met by Bertha after landing near her and she viciously hacked him to death with her machete blade.

Vector tossed a flashbang grenade and the blast radius blinded all except Wolfpack (they shielded their eyes and ears prior to the blast) and with the Spec Ops troops disoriented and unable to defend themselves, this allowed Wolfpack to kill them with ease.

Like the previous wave of enemy soldiers, this wave were all dead now.

"Command, we're inside City Hall." Four Eyes said into her radio comm.

No reply came and she assumed they already knew and the group resumed with their mission.

Realizing that ammunition for them was dangerously reduced, the team looked around for spare ammo clips for their guns and luckily they spotted a large box that was filled with plenty of ammo (they were unsure whether it came from Umbrella or the government Spec Ops, but they didn't care) and none of them hesitated to reload and stock up with as much as they can get.

Later after that, they entered another hallway and were met by more Spec Ops soldiers and were dragged into another firefight.

Wolfpack survived and moved out until they reached the one place they were instructed to go to: the security room.

Two more Spec Ops people were discovered and gunned down by Wolfpack.

"Command, we've entered the security room." Lupo said into her radio.

"There should be a console in there. Use it to override the security lockdown." said Command.

Four Eyes and Spectre did that while the others stood guard.

They finished.

"Good. Now you can access the server room and destroy all of the city's records." Command told them.

Before they could leave, one of the monitors caught Vector's attention and he gazed upon it like he was hypnotized.

"Check out that monitor." he said to his teammates and they huddled together to see what content the screen had to show.

"That is a security feed from earlier today." Spectre said after noticing the time and date on the side of the screen.

The monitor screen showed footage of Nicholai inside a different room of the same building Wolfpack were in right now. He was seen opening a door and getting ready to exit through it when he turned around and saw someone or something coming toward his direction. It was a U.B.C.S. member and was possibly under Nicholai's command.

Without hesitation and with a evil look on his face, Nicholai whipped out a handgun and shot the running man in the leg, crippling him. Wolfpack couldn't believe that the man they ran into not too long ago would turn against his own men.

Two more U.B.C.S. personnel tried to catch up to Nicholai, but he quickly stepped out of the room and closed its door. One of those soldiers banged his fist against the door and tried to open it, but it was no good because the door was now locked and the soldiers were trapped inside.

The wounded man who was injured by Nicholai was crawling away frantically and the other one beside him appeared to be shooting at something off-camera. Pretty soon, it was revealed to be zombies and they were closing in on the trapped men.

The one Wolfpack assumed was cursing Nicholai for his treachery(the footage was muted so none of them could hear anything from it) turned around and saw the creatures. While his two comrades were swarmed and attacked by the zombies, he climbed up on top of the room's large machinery outlets to escape through a vent shaft to avoid becoming zombie food, but one of the zombies, dressed as a security guard, grabbed him by the leg and dragged him back down onto the floor and he met his grisly end as the zombie crowd began eating him and his comrades.

Wolfpack were stunned by what they saw. Normally, they didn't give a damn about the U.B.C.S., but seeing Nicholai's cruel act of treachery against his own team was unexpected and barbaric. Some of the Wolfpack members were truly shocked by that.

"That's Nicholai and his team . . ." said Four Eyes.

"They didn't put up much of a fight." said Vector.

"Isn't that against company policy?" Spectre asked.

"They died like rats. But we still need to destroy that evidence." Bertha said.

"You're right. We've got a job to do." Lupo commented.

They were about to exit the security room when the door they were going to take suddenly burst open and zombies poured in. There were about 12 to 15 of them.

"More infected! Let's move!" Spectre yelled and the group started shooting the creatures in an instant.

Vector delivered a kick to the back of a zombie's leg and proceeded to slit its throat with his knife.

Beltway grabbed one zombie and heaved it over using a suplex move, causing the zombie's body to snap several bones in its body due to its decaying state.

To end it quicker, Lupo targeted the nearest zombie she could find and used a powerful punch to it that knocked it back along with every other zombie near it in the vicinity. With the zombies off their feet and easier to kill this way, Wolfpack executed all of them with headshots and left via the stairs behind the zombie corpses.

More gunfire came from a closed door just a few feet of their view. Spectre used his Sonar Vision mode to see through the door and he detected more Spec Ops soldiers making a stand against another zombie mob.

"I see more B.O.W.s and enemy soldiers together beyond that door." he told them.

Armed with the new info, Wolfpack approached the door, opened it slowly and saw, as Spectre said, a few Spec Ops members shooting at zombies, a third of them Crimson Heads. The soldiers were entirely focused on their problem that they didn't even notice the Umbrella squad standing just behind them.

Rather than kill the distracted troops immediately, Four Eyes instantly thought of a way of getting rid of their enemies without risk to them. She grabbed one of her pheromone bombs, activated it and quietly slid the object near the Spec Ops soldiers's feet.

One of them discovered the bomb and Wolfpack, but was too late to say or do anything about it as Delta Team closed the door and locked it, sealing themselves from the carnage that was to come.

"We'll let the B.O.W.s have a little fun with them before proceeding forward." Four Eyes said and they approved of her plan. With this in action, the team were conserving their firepower rather than just spending it.

Back outside, the bomb began spraying its red gas all over the Spec Ops men and this made the crowd of zombies even more determined to rush at the soldiers in a vicious rage.

"Oh shit!" one of them yelled and they started shooting wildly at the incoming, hungry horde and they were all eventually overpowered and eaten alive.

Screams and groans were heard and Delta Team, under advice from Four Eyes, waited a couple of minutes before making any moves. Four Eyes told them that her chemical takes a while to fully wear off and if they were caught in it before completely dissolving, then the creatures would try to do to them what they just did with the soldiers.

When time was up, Lupo gave the order to reopen the door and killed the feasting zombies as soon as possible. The bodies of the Spec Ops troops was a real mess, but Wolfpack didn't care.

Eventually, they were on the same balcony that led right to where they first entered the City Hall building. It was also there that they ran into more Spec Ops and battled them as well as a few zombies. It was becoming clear that the entire building seemed to be invaded with the Spec Ops guys and the Wolfpack soldiers were now finding them to be a nusince.

After getting both living and undead foes out of the way, Wolfpack navigated themselves around the building's upper balcony and came to a place that looked familiar to them.

Where they were standing in was the same room they saw on the tape footage back in the security room where they witnessed Nicholai betraying his men and leaving them behind to die at the rotting hands of the undead. There were bodies in the room wearing U.B.C.S. uniforms that proved it.

"This must be Nicholai's team." Vector said.

"What is he doing? Why allow all these people to be devoured? He has gone mad." Spectre said.

"You're right. Who knows how many people he has fed to the infected. His mind has been warped." Lupo commented.

"The guy's a fucking nutjob if you ask me." said Beltway. Somehow, he had a feeling that if they ever ran into Nicholai again, he would surely pull a fast one on them as he had done to the dead soldiers in that very place.

"Ooh, looks like fun, but we have a mission, yes?" Bertha said.

Lupo kicked one of the corpses and nothing happened. Although dead, from the manner of how they died, the bodies could rise up at any time from viral infection. To ensure that didn't happen, the team simply fired off a single shot to each of their heads. Now they were completely dead.

"Quit stalling! Concentrate weapons fire on those servers." Command ordered.

"Right. Let's take care of them." said Lupo.

Having no time in deactivating the server machines with the computers, the group decided to just destroy them all with gunfire.

When they finished, U.S.S. Command contacted them.

"Good. Now proceed to the records room and finish the job."

Their next objective, as Command put it just now, was to find the documentation in the building's archives room and get rid of everything there by any means necessary.

All of a sudden, the room was breached by zombies and attacked Wolfpack.

In a similar way with how they dealt with some of the Spec Ops guys earlier, they chose to conserve ammo by using two frag grenades, borrowed from one of the U.B.C.S. corpses rather than using their own, to blow the undead party to smithereens.

Now the room and hall where the zombies emerged from was doused in zombie blood, organs, and rotting flesh. It looked as if the room was rotting and bleeding from the inside-out like a Halloween decoration.

Minutes later, the team arrived in City Hall's records room.

Piles of documents, in both paper and digital form, were everywhere gathering dust and untouched by anyone for days since the virus leak. The only documents Wolfpack were after here were the ones that mentioned Umbrella Inc and those were to be relinquished on sight.

"We're here. The records room." Vector said.

"Alright. Now find that evidence and get rid of it!" said Command and Wolfpack began their inspection of the area for their targets. According to their resources, there should be five documents in the room.

They encountered one of these aforementioned documents on a table in front of them in the forms of large scrolls and blueprints. They contained zoning plans and were ripe for the picking and eventual destruction.

"This must be what we're looking for. Let's torch it." said Beltway, even though he nor anyone else had any actual flammable products or weapons on them.

Spectre found a dropped box of matches near the table. He opened the box and saw that only four matchsticks were already used before by someone else and several more remained unused.

He broke one stick off, lit his match on the box's side patch and lowered it onto the document papers. Within a few seconds, the papers were fully ablaze and the fire consumed every ounce of it.

"One down, four more to go." Four Eyes said. Getting an idea, Spectre instructed the others to find the remaining documents and bring them all back to the table so he could burn them altogether. While they split up to search, Spectre stayed behind to watch for enemy soldiers or B.O.W.s. After all, he did have the tools for that attached to his face.

Bertha found a document that was meant for electric plans and she took it.

Vector discovered the sewage plan documents and he too snatched it.

A document designed for staffing plans were seen and taken by Beltway and the final document was found by Lupo.

After gathering all the documents, they each regrouped near the entrance and they piled the documents onto the same table the first document was burned on.

Lighting another match, Spectre simply tossed it onto the pile and the papers were all set alight and were incinerated until nothing remained. It was a good thing for Wolfpack that the room's smoke detectors were down otherwise that would have brought on problems for them.

With their task complete, Vector made contact with the group's CO.

"Command, the evidence at City Hall has been taken care of." he said.

"Great work, Delta Team." said Command.

"Now let's fucking beat it before those things show up." Beltway said.

Wolfpack exited the records room through another door on the other side of the area.

When they arrived at another destination, a large room, they found nothing but more useless records and junk. No zombies or Spec Ops were present anywhere. However, it did not mean that the six Umbrella soldiers were safe and out of harm's reach. Trouble could spring out and jump them at any given moment and they had to be ready for it.

Apparently, that trouble came to them in the form of Nicholai Ginovaef. He was seen standing on the other side of the large room just above the floor, staring at Wolfpack with a sadistic grin on his face. Although he was the only one other than the Delta Team members left in the building, something told them that he had something sinister planned just for them.

"Nicholai! What's the meaning of this!? Why did you kill your team!?" Vector demanded angrily.

The U.B.C.S. member and traitor laughed evilly.

"They served their purpose most excellently." he said and grabbed his pistol and aimed it at them. "Just as _you_ will!"

He fired a shot at them and they reacted by moving away. However, he missed and didn't fire again. Wolfpack got the message that he missed his shot intentionally, which was part of his plan because before any of them could return fire at him, a sound was heard and Lupo told the team to hold their positions.

Harsh growling was heard coming from somewhere within the room. It sounded more menacing than zombies or Cerberus dogs.

They heard a screech and Wolfpack prepared for battle with the upcoming threat.

Spectre's mask technology informed him just exactly what the new danger was and just before he could tell the others, a group of B.O.W.s were seen crawling out from the room's ventilator shafts and ceilings.

These creatures were different from anything Wolfpack faced in the city or in Dr. Birkin's former lab. Their bodies were nothing but muscle tissue and they had large talon claws on their hands and feet. Their tongues were slimy and extended in length and their brains were exposed on top of their heads and they had no eyes, meaning that they were blind, but they had strong hearing to compensate for their lack of vision. They were Lickers.

"Lickers!" Lupo expressed.

"Have fun!" Nicholai taunted and made a bolting exit from the room, dodging one of the Licker monsters along the way and locked the doors behind him, trapping Wolfpack inside with the blind yet deadly creatures.

The Lickers turned toward Wolfpack's direction and attacked.

Now the team was determined to escape City Hall, but to do that, they needed a keycard for the doors Nicholai locked as they were electronic.

The Lickers inched closer to them and were immediately shot at and they leaped down to the floor and started searching high and low for the keycard while at the same time struggling to keep the skinless B.O.W.s off their tail.

One of those creatures leaped to the floor from the ceiling, wrapped its tongue around Beltway and tried to drag him toward itself, but his suit's weight outmatched the monster's tongue strength.

"No tongue, bitch!" Beltway shouted and raised his weapon at the opposing enemy and fired. The bullets penetrated the Licker's body and it died.

Another Licker pounced onto Vector and tried to keep him pinned down for a kill move. The pounce also knocked his assault rifle out of his grip.

Vector struggled with the Licker long enough to grab his handgun and fired off most of its rounds at the monster's underside. Four of his bullets struck the Licker's heart organ, causing the creature to squeal, thrash around a bit and die.

He shoved the body off himself and quickly stood back up. It was there that he realized their weak spot: their hearts.

"Everyone, go for their hearts! They'll die faster that way!" he said aloud and returned to fending off another Licker that heard him.

Giving it a shot, the Wolfpack soldiers followed Vector's advice and targeted their weapon directly at the Lickers' unprotected hearts.

Pretty soon, most of them dropped(some of them literally) faster than they would have if they were shot at other parts of their bodies.

All of the invading Lickers were now dead and Wolfpack took this time to reload and sweep the area for their only means of escape before more showed up. Beltway could use his explosives to breach the door, but he felt the need to conserve his equipment for further matters such as if they were locked in another room and there was no key or keycard around. Only then would his bombs would be useful.

One of them found the black keycard, told the others about it and was about ti use the card when an explosion within the room suddenly went off and the room was now on fire and to make it even worse for them, backup Lickers showed up and prepared for another assault on the six soldiers who didn't want to stay and fight.

"Move it!" Lupo shouted and the group fled for the doors, used the keycard to open them and sprinted out and shut the doors to prevent the creatures from following them. Now the creatures were trapped in the room with the fire and Wolfpack were back where they started when they first came to City Hall.

"That was too close!" Bertha said with exhaustion.

"If we cross paths with Nicholai again, he'll regret it!" Vector said with anguish in his voice.

"You're damn right he will! We ought to carve him up like a holiday ham!" said Beltway.

After a brief rest, Wolfpack navigated their way through the familiar main room of the building, killing off all zombies that were now invading the place without stopping until they were finally outside the building and back onto the streets.

Command called them as soon as they exited.

"Alright. Get it together if you want to be extracted. Don't forget that you caused all of this. In the meantime, we'll look into that U.B.C.S. operative, Nicholai."

What their CO said greatly angered Wolfpack.

"What do you mean we caused this?" Lupo demanded, but she got no answer. Despite Wolfpack's irritation at U.S.S. Command, the latter was sort of right about the situation. What happened back in the Underground lab and with William Birkin triggered the local apocalypse that went on tonight, so it was kinda Wolfpack's fault the T-Virus destroyed Raccoon City. If they had gotten that hidden G-virus sample Birkin had after the raid, he wouldn't have used it on himself and caused the destruction in the facility and release the T-Virus.

U.S.S. Command gave Wolfpack a new objective just when they started walking down the building's entrance steps and into the street.

"A number of survivors in Raccoon City may still have information that could damage the corporation. We don't have time to hunt them down individually so we're going to have you knock out a power grid that will take down the city's telecommunications. We can't let anything get out that might link us to the outbreak. We are sending you some electromagnetic pulse generators that you will use to deactivate the power plant in the northern sector of the city. A supply chopper is inbound with the generators, rendezvous with it on the Raccoon City Hospital rooftop helipad."

Despite the team's exhaustion with Nicholai, the Lickers, and their irritation at Command for blaming them for the town's horrors, they reluctantly agreed to fulfill the new task.

"Objective conformed, we're moving to the hospital now." Lupo said.

"Command out."

Wolfpack moved out.

Eventually, they reached their next destination: Raccoon General Hospital.

"I am getting too old for this." Spectre complained. No one said anything about it.

The hallway they stood in upon entry seemed empty, but Wolfpack were not fooled. Something was bound to jump out and attack at any time.

They carefully walked through the hall and entered what looked like a cafeteria filled with party stuff such as balloons, party hats, present boxes that were ripped or unopened and food items that were left uneaten and rotting. Apparently, it was some kind of retirement party meant for someone before the T-Virus escaped as it said so on a few signs that said "Happy Retirement!"

Before proceeding any further, a familiar, sinister-sounding voice spoke through the room's intercom speakers. It was Nicholai Ginovaef.

"Good evening Umbrella Security Service. Hope you haven't forgotten your old friend, Nicholai." he said, his voice echoed through the abandoned cafeteria.

_I wish we did._ Bertha thought.

Nicholai continued. "I see you escaped my little diversion at City Hall."

Wolfpack looked around the cafeteria for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. Not even Spectre was able to spot him with his goggles when he thought he was hiding inside.

"How is he tracking us?" Spectre asked.

"Unfortunately, my client . . . can't have you interfering with our little side project. So I've rigged up a few toys to keep you busy." said the mad U.B.C.S. member.

And just as he said that, the tables all over the cafeteria began to wobble and zombies crawled out from underneath them and began walking toward the U.S.S. unit.

Nicholai let out a maniacal laugh through the intercom and left Wolfpack on their own to fend off the undead.

"Nicholai, you bastard!" Lupo yelled and she and her comrades had no choice but to survive Nicholai's trap.

After killing the zombies a few minutes later, more broke into the cafeteria through another door and joined in on the action.

Wolfpack saw that these new zombies were different. They were rigged with bombs that were attached to poles which were embedded in their backs and shoulders. If these zombies were killed or if the timers on their bombs expired, they would go off and lead to bigger problems for the six survivors.

"Shoot zombies before . . . they get too close." Spectre advised, not that he or the others couldn't see that.

The bomb zombies were shot at from a far distance and when they died, their traps exploded. Two zombies that were walking next to them were also killed when this happened and it gave the Wolfpack members an idea on killing them faster.

Four Eyes gathered the zombies together with another one of her pheromone bombs and when that worked, she fired off a shot at one zombie whose bomb detonated and killed all the other surrounding zombies, making their own bombs explode as well until they were all vanquished.

From somewhere, Nicholai was heard again via the building's intercoms.

"Ha ha! My little contraptions seem to be working perfectly."

"Go fuck yourself, Nicholai!" Beltway shouted,. He hoped Nicholai was able to hear his angry comment, but Nicholai said nothing back and left the team alone again.

After the rigged zombies were dealt with, the unit waited for the pheromone gas to wear off first before leaving the cafeteria through the same door the zombies came from and soon, they were now standing inside the hospital's main lobby where a few dead bodies were seen laying on the floor and on a couple of stretchers that were laid out in the area.

Another door from the opposite side of their position was broken down by more zombies with bomb traps on their bodies and made their way to the Wolfpack soldiers.

Some of those rigged zombies were Crimson Heads. Their speed, agility and strength, combined with their bombs, made them even more dangerous to handle.

The group quickly killed the Crimson zombies first before targeting the slow ones next.

After the threat was terminated, Wolfpack explored further and found a stairway that led them to another room filled with zombies waiting for a bite to eat. During the undead massacre, one zombie latched onto Vector and he finished it off by grabbing its head under his right arm and giving a sudden jerk to its head and neck.

Another bomb zombies emerged from a hidden spot and attacked Four Eyes when the team entered another hospital room. Seeing the bomb's red light blinking fast, Four Eyes shoved the creature away just in time as the device went off and showered its surroundings with blood and flesh. A second too late and she would have wound up being killed or seriously burned and/or injured.

When they journeyed farther, they discovered not only another exit ahead of them, but they also found out that they also needed a keycard to open it, just like with back in City Hall.

"Great . . . another keycard to find." Vector said, annoyed by the new task.

A familiar, hissing sound echoed near them and they got ready, already aware of what was coming for them next.

"Not . . . a good sound." Spectre said.

Lickers were crawling into the room through shafts and Wolfpack got to work in getting rid of them right away.

Afterwards, the team found the card they needed, which was located in a trash bin, and resumed their dangerous journey to the helipad.

"Delta Team, the EMP supply chopper is inbound! Get to the roof!" said U.S.S. Command.

Beltway wanted to say "What do you think we're trying to do!?" to his own boss, but he restrained himself for the moment.

All six members came to a room, but before they can take its stairway to the top, Spectre noticed a couple of laser-trip mines attached to each side of the stairs and one on top. The Russian member was able to spot them via his thermal vision since the lasers were invisible to naked eyes and upon so, he stopped his teammates in their tracks.

"Laser trip mines . . . detected." he said.

They looked around and saw the three mines armed and ready to detonate should anyone or anything touch their lasers which were unseen to them.

They stepped back cautiously and Spectre picked up a cardboard box and threw it at the bombs to activate them and they exploded, allowing the group to access the stairs. They also had a guess that Nicholai planted those bombs just for them.

More rigged zombies were disposed of and the team kept moving to their intended destination.

A giant ammunition chest was found and Wolfpack helped themselves to as much as they could carry.

They finally made it to the hospital building's rooftop and spotted the helipad. Besides that, their relief was short-lived when a crowd of Crimson Head zombies were seen coming right at them. None of the creatures were rigged with explosives like previously, but they still had to be destroyed.

"V-A-C-T's! Be careful!" Spectre said. "V-A-C-T" is Umbrella's original name for Crimson Head zombies.

Wolfpack worked together in killing the sprinting redheads.

Soon, the helipad was secure and Wolfpack climbed onto its top and awaited the helicopter Command told them about.

The sound of rotating blades was heard and they looked around the night sky and spotted a helicopter heading their way. It was the chopper loaded with the EMP charges they were ordered to get.

However, before the helicopter could land and make its scheduled delivery, it was suddenly shot at by an unknown source and the air vehicle started spinning out of control. The unexpected attack was not done by a rocket or a missile, but rather by a mere, simple bullet that struck the helicopter's pilot and caused injury and death.

The helicopter continued to decrease in altitude until it crashed in a different section of the town.

Back at the helipad, Wolfpack watched in awe.

"Who could have done that?" Bertha asked.

"Who do you think?" Vector responded. The answer to who was responsible for the mishap was pretty clear to them: Nicholai.

Just as they guessed it correctly, a series of explosions suddenly rocked the hospital and a few other buildings elsewhere and the event literally brought the roof and helipad down along with Wolfpack. They crashed back inside the structure and were now stranded. To make it worse for them, the entire floor they were on, along with the rest of the hospital, was on fire and the fire alarm began blaring everywhere.

"This hospital is burning down! Let's get out of here before we go with it!" Bertha said in a panic.

Beltway cursed when his left arm was in pain from the impact and he began rubbing it. "Command, Nicholai just shot down our supply drop and we're fucking burning up in here!" he said into his comm link.

"Do not let Nicholai get a hold of those EMP charges! Get to that crash site and recover them immediately!" Command ordered.

The lines stopped and Wolfpack had no other option but to navigate themselves through the hospital that was now one big blazing inferno.

They made it back down to the cafeteria where Crimson Head zombies were seen again, but this time, instead of carrying explosives on them, they were engulfed in fire. They were being cooked alive and yet the fire didn't seem to slow them down one bit and being grabbed by any of them in their current condition was obviously dangerous! CQC techniques on the flaming zombies was most definitely out of the question.

"Take down those walking torches!" Beltway shouted and they all shot down the fiery undead with extreme caution.

The Crimson Heads kept coming and with their speed and strength, Wolfpack had to evade them now and deal with them later.

The group were back in the waiting room which was also on fire like everything else.

Lupo had an idea on getting out.

"The morgue should have a loading dock! We can exit through there! Hurry!" she explained.

They started running to the opposite end of the area and entered a hallway and when they reached its doors, they burst open and, instead of zombies as expected, Wolfpack were met by a trio of fierce Hunter B.O.W.s!

"Hunters! Be careful around them!" warned Four Eyes.

One of the creatures roared viciously and began their assault on the Umbrella squad. Because the hallway was narrow, this made it difficult to maneuver around the bulky-sized reptilian creatures and the Umbrella operatives realized that fighting them was their only solution.

One Hunter went for Lupo and Vector, the second went for Beltway and Four Eyes and the last one targeted Spectre and Bertha.

Thinking quickly, Lupo used her suit's invulnerability to help her stand a better chance against the enemy monster and, despite their burning environment, she loaded her weapon with filled with incendiary round which would harm the Hunter and kill it faster than regular bullets. She was saving them for special occasions and now seemed the be the perfect time.

Vector's cloaking couldn't fool the creatures for certain obvious reasons, so he relied on just his weapons and quick reflexes. The Hunters may be strong and slightly resistant to puncture wounds and gunfire due to their armored skin, but they were slow.

Lupo fired her incendiary rounds at the Hunter and the bullets penetrated its flesh and caused intense burns, making the creature howl in pain and Vector went in with his own gunfire and mortally wounded the Hunter with a few quick slashes and impaled his knife through the underside of its large chin.

The Hunter grasped at its bleeding jaw as it bled out from its injury and gurgled blood while Lupo's bullets burned it in different areas where she shot it at and soon its whole body was on fire. These combined attacks weakened the Hunter enough to kill it.

Beltway, like Vector, relied on his skills and weapons to fight and Four Eyes decided to try killing her target in a way that differed from her pheromone bombs. It involved the use of her mind-controlling chemical she called "Program Infected". Zombies might be easy to control, but Hunters were a whole different story, which is why she was eager to test it out on them.

The team's virologist whipped out her hypo gun, set it in the desired setting and fired one shot containing the chemical at the Hunter. At first the monster was confused by her action and barely felt the prick of the needle on its flesh and resumed attacking. In a few seconds though, the Hunter stopped and began clutched at its head and squealed painfully. This meant that Four Eyes' drug appeared to be taking effect on its mind and body and soon, the creature ceased attacking and was now under control, allowing Four Eyes to command it in any manner she pleased and it couldn't disobey her orders no matter what.

She told Beltway to give one of his frag grenades to it and he did, though he did this with caution as he was still on edge from being close to the large creature.

Four Eyes then ordered the drugged Hunter to remove the grenade's pin and swallow the explosive itself. It fiercely yanked off the pin, placed the object in its jaws and gulped it down its throat like a fruit. With that done, the two soldiers quickly stood back and the Hunter exploded, its blood and bones splattering everywhere.

"That's just downright disgusting, but I fucking like it!" Beltway commented and Four Eyes said nothing. She was stunned that her Project Infected drug formula actually worked on Hunters. Next time, she wanted to try it on a Licker.

Bertha had her healing items and abilities ready for the fight. But just to make things go a little smoother for her and the group, she injected the Hunter that was staring at her with her "Infection Neutralizer" drug, the chemical that healed or harmed T-Virus infectees.

Spectre took on the same Hunter with just his guns due to him not having any special killing abilities like his teammates had.

Bertha began firing her weapon at the enemy. During the fight, the creature was starting to feel weak. Like with Four Eyes' drug, Bertha's own injection was effecting the Hunter's ability to fight and it was soon on its knees from losing physical strength and it groaned weakly and was seeing everything in blurry vision.

Bertha took this chance to kill the weakened Hunter with her machete blade to save on ammo.

With the three Hunters out of their way, Wolfpack carried on with their escape.

They entered the hospital's morgue room and hoped that Lupo was correct about there being a means of escape around here.

Another Hunter burst in and knocked Beltway into a fire pit at random.

"Fuck, that burns!" he shouted and quickly scrambled away from the fire and patted all flames from his person. Lucky for Beltway, his thick heavy suit prevented any burn injuries to him as it was designed resistant to most fiery explosions. He didn't actually feel the burning pain, it was just a sudden reaction from being knocked into it.

Lupo rushed over to help him out.

"Be careful, _mon ami_." she said to him. What she said translated to "my friend" in French as she herself was French.

The Hunter was killed and they kept running, refusing to stop for anything or any virus being that tried to stop them until they reached the morgue's exit door and were finally outside again and they were very relieved to have survived the fire incident.

"I told you this was a way out. Now let's get to that crash site, find the EMP charges and, if possible, kill Nicholai."

Wolfpack walked ahead with their weapons raised and ready for any B.O.W.s or Spec Ops soldiers.

Spectre used his wrist computer to locate the downed helicopter's whereabouts and soon learned that the site was the city's park.

The sounds of gunfire and yelling were heard not too far from them, not to mention inhuman growling and screeching. Each member guessed that enemy soldiers were around and were fighting off some B.O.W.s and judging from the screeching noises, Crimson Heads were afoot.

"Stay quiet and move slow." said Vector.

They entered an abandoned apartment building and turned a corner that led them back outside and onto another street.

Their guess about there being soldiers and zombies within range were correct as they spotted a team of Spec Ops troops combating Crimson Heads that were running at them from all side except from, obviously, Wolfpack's own spot. The lone Umbrella unit brainstormed on what action to take next at the sight.

"Should we let the bastards tear themselves to shreds or do we just kill 'em all?" Beltway questioned. He wanted to kill the Spec Ops members, but on the other hand, he saw the idea of the creatures killing them brutally as more entertaining.

"I say we sit this one out for the moment and terminate the leftovers like last time. It will save us the ammo for more important matters on the road ahead, yes." Bertha suggested. By "important matters", the German woman was referring to Nicholai rather than the city's creatures.

Nobody protested that idea and they hid in the shadows except Vector who simply activated his cloaking and stood his ground and they all watched the street battle in silence.

Eventually, it was just down to a single Crimson Head and two Spec Ops members. Some of the soldiers were still alive, but those ones were gravely injured and possibly infected with the T-Virus all in part of the zombies.

When the Crimson Head was killed, the remaining Spec Ops were about to tend to their wounded teammates when Wolfpack suddenly emerged from their hiding places and finished them all off, especially the fresh virus carriers.

Jogging all the way to the other side of the street, the team found the path that led to the Raccoon City Park. Spectre informed them about the crash site being somewhere in the park and Wolfpack hopped over a pile of discarded junk. When they reached the park's gate entrance, they were disappointed to find that it was blocked off completely.

"It's blocked. We'll need to go around." Vector said. Having no other option, Wolfpack resorted to Vector's suggestion.

An open path was seen on their right and they followed it. A few wooden fences were seen and they just simply ran across them.

The team discovered a large, brick wall with a gaping hole blown in its middle and they entered the park that way. Fog covered the entire park, making it appear to be haunted. It gave them the creeps.

At last, they found the downed helicopter. Now they had to search it completely for the EMP devices and vamoose before any of the city's monsters showed up or worse, Nicholai.

A hefty box was seen sitting alone near the wreckage and Vector went and scooped it up.

"Is this it?" he asked. A sticker on its side was seen and it identified the item as one of the EMP devices they sought.

"Yes. Only two more to go." Spectre answered.

Screeching and rapid footsteps came within earshot and Wolfpack knew that company was coming.

Crimson Heads originated from the fog and were running toward Delta Team who then raised their weapons and opened fire at the creatures.

During the conflict, another scattered EMP device was discovered by Four Eyes and she took it.

"I found another one!" she shouted, shooting down a zombie that followed her.

"Good. That only leaves us with one more, yes?" Bertha asked.

Their radio comms were unexpectedly intercepted by the voice of Nicholai during the zombie battle.

"If you want the last EMP charge . . . then come and get it!" he said to them, his tone in a teasing manner.

Each Delta Team operative felt their blood boil and minds cloud with fury from hearing him.

"Nicholai!? He must be on our comm channel!" Spectre stated.

"No shit, Sherlock!" said Beltway.

"Wolfpack, take him out! You need that EMP charge!" said Command.

Receiving their new order without protest, Wolfpack killed off the remaining Crimson Head creatures and entered a gate that led them to a place that appeared to be void of life except for them just now. A building with three sections was seen along with a few garden blocks on the ground in front of them. This new place looked like something out of a Gothic story.

A red laser started creeping up on one of the Wolfpack members and then a gunshot was fired from somewhere and it almost hit them.

"Sniper! Take cover!" Lupo shouted and they did with the area's plant blocks.

A figure appeared from one of the building's structure and Wolfpack immediately recognized it to be Nicholai. He was seen holding a sniper rifle in his hands.

The U.B.C.S. operative tossed out a frag grenade and it landed near Vector and Beltway.

"Grenade!" Beltway yelled and they all quickly moved away and the grenade exploded.

"Someone distract him with suppressible fire so we can move!" Vector said.

"HA! You fools don't even know what you're doing!" Nicholai taunted through their radios.

Gunshots were exchanged between the opposing people. Spectre was the only one capable of actually seeing Nicholai via his mask's scope and informed them of Nicholai's activities such as where he moved to and when he was reloading his firearm whenever he ran out of ammunition.

"Do you really believe that I could have done this all alone, comrades?" Nicholai asked them during the battle. "How do you think I knew where you were going? How did I know about your precious EMP devices? Simple: my client gave me your comm channel!"

His speech stunned the Wolfpack team.

"That's right! I've been gathering combat data for 'Operation Watchdog'! You have been most useful in assisting me!" he said with pride.

"That fuckwad! He's been hoodwinking us the whole fucking time!" Beltway yelled angrily.

Another grenade was thrown at them as Nicholai continued rambling on about his deeds.

"Of course, if my client _wants_ this information, then they will have to pay for it, and neither you or them can stop me!"

He was then shot at by Bertha and Spectre and received a hit in his right shoulder. His shrieking grunt of pain satisfied Wolfpack for a brief moment.

Vector activated his cloaking and started running across the the field in order to sneak inside the structure Nicholai holed himself in and kill him from within. However, he unknowingly stepped on a hidden landmine and it began beeping. Cursing loudly, Vector made a desperate dive away from it and into a corner of the building.

The mine detonated and bits of rubble and dirt splashed everywhere, including Vector who's cloak was disrupted by the blast and deactivated. Now he had to wait a while before using his cloak again. It was obvious that Nicholai had set up the trap and there was a possibility that additional landmines were buried in random spots in the ground ahead of the team, just waiting to go off and harm someone or something.

Nicholai saw this from the corner of his eye and smiled wickedly, now aware of what Vector tried to do. Other than that, he also had a thermal scope equipped on his rifle, allowing him to see Vector whenever he's in his invisible form.

_You didn't think I didn't come prepared especially for you, did you?_ he thought to himself.

The Russian man threw another grenade at Wolfpack, not caring who he harmed with it.

That didn't happen when one of his enemies shot the object in mid-air, causing it to explode and harm nobody. Although against Wolfpack, even Nicholai had to admit that that was an extraordinary feat.

While reloading, Lupo spotted a sniper rifle near a dead zombie and claimed it, avoiding another bullets by Nicholai. It was a bolt-action type. She inspected it for ammo and found only 5 bullets remaining in its clip. This new gun would increase their chances at getting rid of the deranged U.B.C.S. soldier faster, but the downside was that there were no further spare clips for the gun, so she'd have to use it wisely.

Sure they could use their own weapons on Nicholai, but with him camping high above them in the building and with hidden landmines preventing any of them from proceeding further, Lupo's new rifle was one of two weapons among Delta Team that would aid them, the other was the semi-auto rifle Spectre had and he had plenty of ammunition to go around and unlike her gun, Spectre's carried 10 rounds per magazine, doubling the firepower.

She had an idea.

"Spectre! I found a sniper rifle, so I need your help in disposing Nicholai!" she said to him.

"Understood. Get ready to shoot!" he said.

Lupo and Spectre readied their respective rifles and took aim at where Nicholai kept appearing to shoot.

Nicholai laughed. "This might be easier than I thought. Maybe I overestimated the U.S.S." he said.

He then left his post for a moment and began to ring the tower's bell. Its loud ringing echoed throughout the park and went non-stop. That was bad news for Wolfpack because soon, they started hearing the all-too familiar roaring and snarling and it was getting closer.

"Not again!" Bertha complained.

Zombies showed up from everywhere and from under the building and made their way to the U.S.S. people. Some of those zombies also happened to be former U.B.C.S. soldiers. Either Nicholai doomed them to that fate or they got separated from their him and their units on their own.

"Ha! Easy targets!" Nicholai bragged.

With Wolfpack being distracted by the new zombie threat, they had to carefully balance between killing the creatures and shooting at Nicholai whilst avoiding getting wounded by him.

Some of the zombies tried to breach the building's doors to get to Nicholai due to his bullet wound and they were easily attracted to the sight or smell of fresh, uninfected blood.

"Spectre and I will handle Nicholai so all of you keep those B.O.W.s away from us at all costs!" Lupo said.

To ensure she couldn't be harmed by Nicholai or the undead, Lupo activated her "Super Soldier" ability again and she and Spectre got to work in attacking Nicholai while the others worked to keep the zombies at bay from them.

"Do you see him?" Lupo asked him.

Spectre focused his mask's vision mode and got a lock on Nicholai.

"Indeed. He is standing on the far right of your position . . . trying to tend to his injury." he said.

The two snipers focused their rifle scopes on where their target supposedly was and prepared to fire the moment he tried to shoot.

Nicholai emerged from his hiding place and took aim at whomever he wished to shoot, mostly at the ones fending off the undead. But before he could do that, Spectre shot at Nicholai's rifle to prevent him from firing and Lupo took a shot at him, hitting him in the chest.

Lupo grinned with glee at striking the man down. Unfortunately for her and Spectre, Nicholai was wearing a bullet-resistant vest underneath his uniform. It saved him from being killed, but the bullet's impact against his vest still hurt. Plus, he was still vulnerable on his limbs and most importantly, his head.

"Agh! You are ruining my work!" he shouted.

After spending additional time killing the zombies and trying to kill Nicholai with no success so far, the latter had ceased his shooting rampage and fled the scene through a secret entrance/exit. By this time, no more zombies approached and Lupo's ability expired without her realizing it until now and the team members were all covered with blood and dirt.

"Nicholai is not a priority. Disengage and proceed to the power plant immediately. We need to deactivate that power grid." said U.S.S. Command.

"Nicholai's gone, eh? What a fucking chicken, choosing to run off than stay and fight like a man." Beltway said about the situation.

The entire area was quiet again. No gunshots, explosions or monster noises.

Their business finished here, Wolfpack gathered up their weapons and ammo and headed toward the building. Spectre used his mask technology to seek out any leftover landmines that survived the onslaught as well as Nicholai's whereabouts inside and didn't see either one, indicating that the madman had indeed escaped and that it was safe to cross the field. Still, that didn't mean they were safe from him. They were bound to run into him sometime in the city.

The group realized that all of the entrances to the building were bolted shut from the other side and that Nicholai must have built barriers to hold off all enemies before their short-lived confrontation with him.

Beltway tried ramming down a door on the building's far left, but he didn't succeed, so he planted a bomb on the door's front and he and the others stood back as far as possible. They didn't worry about the blast attracting any undead nearby for there weren't any around, what they killed earlier was the horde of the park.

Beltway pressed a button on his wrist computer and the bomb exploded, opening the door for sure.

Wolfpack stepped inside and found a grand piano in the lobby and a small chapel room that was filled with extra corpses of zombified nuns and reverends. All of them had bullet holes in their heads and bodies, telling them that Nicholai slew them upon arrival.

The team entered the chapel and started searching until the 3rd and final EMP charge was located under one of the chapel's seats, thus ending Wolfpack's hunt for the EMP devices.

"Command, we've obtained all three EMP charges. Requesting update." Lupo spoke in her radio.

"Good work, Wolfpack. Management is not sure what's motivating Nicholai. But he seems to have ulterior motives. We'll keep looking into it."

Wolfpack took their boss's word for it and departed from the chapel through a back exit. Their next location was, as Command put it, the city's power plant.

People from the Spec Ops unit were seen outside waiting for someone or something to pass by. Spotting each other, the two factions attacked one another.

When the U.S.S. team were finished killing their enemies, they ran across a corner or two until they reached a building that they guessed was the power plant. Now they had to find and disable the plant's generators.

Two minutes later, Wolfpack found the plant's main generator room. It was huge, so huge that neither member knew where to start. The three main generators were seen in the area, electricity flowing throughout their metallic forms. No one was guarding the generators, leaving them ripe for the picking or so to speak.

"Command, we've reached the power plant." Vector said.

"Copy that. Plant the EMP charges on the generators and knock out that power grid." Command ordered and Wolfpack got to work right away.

To make it simpler, one EMP charge was given to three of their own and those in possession of them were told to seek out one generator machine each and plant a charge near them while the ones without an EMP device were to stand guard for intruders of any kind, monster and human.

While the team did their jobs, groups of Spec Ops soldiers were seen moving into the power plant's main room and prepared to attack.

"Spec Ops . . . incoming!" Spectre yelled.

The ones with the EMP charges put their tasks aside to help in fighting off the opposing unit.

Besides the Spec Ops, zombies suddenly invaded the area. Now it was a two-way fight for both operatives.

One Spec Ops person was struck with three bullets, suffering massive bleeding. This caused the zombies to suddenly screech and head for the wounded victim, ignoring their previous enemies.

The Wolfpack unit stared on as their adversaries focused more on the undead than on them. Seeing that made them suddenly realize why the creatures were attacking the Spec Ops more due to their wounded member. This is exactly how they saw the zombies act when they battled Nicholai at the chapel building before, but the team didn't realize it then. The presence of blood from the Spec Ops soldier and from Nicholai made the creatures behave wildly like sharks or piranhas in a feeding frenzy, a behavior similar to how they get from Four Eyes' pheromone bombs.

Like an egg, an idea hatched inside their minds.

Aiming carefully, the Wolfpack group fired shots at the Spec Ops soldier's unarmored body parts such as their arms, legs and even their head and throats and as expected, the zombie horde lurched at the Spec Ops men even more than before, leaving them to be distracted long enough for Wolfpack to sneak around the chaos and place their charges on the generators.

None of the zombies even bothered to notice and attack the Umbrella soldiers as they were too busy with the team of government soldiers like wild animals.

so far, only two charges were planted. All they had to do was place the final charge and leave the plant.

Just then, they heard the voice of a certain someone above them.

"I'm done playing games with you Security Service dogs! Time to finish this!" Once again, it was Nicholai Ginovaef.

"It's Nicholai . . . on the catwalks . . . above us!" Spectre said aloud.

Wolfpack looked up and saw Nicholai standing right above everyone and everything. He held his sniper rifle tightly in his hands and prepared to attack the U.S.S. troops.

_Here we go again!_ Lupo thought.

As they fought with Nicholai again, more enemies, both zombies and Spec Ops, appeared and went after Wolfpack and each other. With their presence, tackling them and Nicholai was going to be an even more serious, difficult task to juggle.

Vector offered to take the last EMP charge and complete the mission himself. He was given the device and he quickly activated his cloak and made haste.

Beltway accompanied him since demolitions and explosives were his specialty.

Although none of the Spec Ops people could see Vector, the B.O.W.s could as well as Nicholai thanks to his thermal scope, but he didn't care about that. His bullets would have a hard time piercing Beltway's armor suit, but he tried anyway.

The Umbrella duo shoved a Spec Ops man aside and before that person could fight back, he fell over a rail and was attacked by some of the zombies nearby and his horrible shrieks were echoed throughout the compound.

At last, the charge was set and was good to go.

"Charges set! Detonating now!" Beltway warned. He and Vector ran for it as did their teammates, Nicholai and any surviving Spec Ops members and in a few seconds, all three EMP devices were initiated.

The three generators exploded in a blinding flash of light and in seconds, they, the computers inside the area and everything electronic all over the city were deactivated. Buildings and homes blacked out all at once. Nothing electronic survived.

By then, most of Raccoon City was soon engulfed in darkness and the only main source of light available were the fires that blazed on. Other than that, the only things that withstood the EMP blast were Wolfpack's own gear and technology.

Miles away outside the city limits, even a few signs that said "WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY. HOME OF UMBRELLA." were powered down. It was like a modern-day version of the 8th plague from biblical scriptures.

"Good. The power grid's down. Out job's done here. No need to keep fighting. Leave those bastards in the dark." Command commented on Wolfpack's success.

When it was over, Wolfpack took a seat on a ruined bus stop bench and breathed a sigh of relief knowing that their task was complete and they were free of Nicholai and his madness.

With the city now having gone dark and survivors being isolated, Raccoon City was pretty much reduced to a B.O.W testing ground and it was now the creatures' new domain. Of course, there was still more for Wolfpack to do regardless of the EMP situation and this was proven when they got another incoming call from their CO.

"Delta Team, the corporation has used the outbreak in Raccoon City as an opportunity to deploy a prototype of our most powerful and responsive B.O.W. to date: the T02. Codenamed: 'Nemesis'. It's on a mission to kill the last remaining members of S.T.A.R.S. However, it has been damaged and is no longer responding to commands. We need you to locate and repair it."

"Copy that, Command. Repairing a prototype B.O.W.? This should be interesting . . ." said Four Eyes.

U.S.S. Command continued speaking. "First you'll need to secure a working NE-a parasite. We've identified one inside of an Umbrella facility nearby."

"Understood. We'll take care of it." Lupo said, sighing in irritation when the transmission ended. Their next objective was confirmed.

"Let's go, Wolfpack. We've got a B.O.W. to repair." she told them.

They all groaned as they began standing up and prepared to move out, their irritation from both having another mission and from being exhausted. What a night they've been having. Lupo didn't blame them for being grouchy, she felt it too.

Around twenty minutes later after a strenuous run across the destruction, the Wolfpack team reached a building, entered and looked out its windows and saw a structure ahead known as the "Dead Factory".

Upon seeing it, they each noticed something odd about it. The factory seemed to be fully operational despite them obliterating the city's electricity. Something was amiss here.

"Why does the Dead Factory still have power? We just shut down the power grid." Lupo said, confused about the topic.

"You don't think Umbrella relies on city power, do ya?" Beltway asked her. His comment/question claimed that he obviously knew about the factory's current immunity to the EMP explosion.

Figuring that they'd better get started, Wolfpack opened the door and left the building they stayed in, ready for action. They guessed that their main objective, the Nemesis monster, was housed somewhere within the giant warehouse ahead of them.

A few zombies were seen wandering around some wrecked vehicles on a road and they were easily killed.

Crimson Heads were spotted next just ahead near a bus and the creatures began to run toward the group. To cut down on time and ammo, one of the soldiers saw and shot at a red metal barrel and it exploded, killing the entire mob of red heads.

"This way!" Lupo shouted and directed the team toward her intended direction.

A shot was suddenly fired at them, missing, and they had to stop and take cover. Above an apartment building, three Spec Ops soldiers were discovered crouching and taking shots at Wolfpack with sniper rifles.

Taking no chances, Wolfpack retaliated with their own firepower. Spectre used his mask vision to seek out the shooter and fired his own shots at them. He killed one via head shot and that victim ended up falling out of the apartment's window and onto the street.

Zombies appeared from a back alley and followed Wolfpack. Some of them saw the dead soldier and walked toward the corpse to feast on instead.

While the shootout commenced, Four Eyes and Bertha were grappled by three Crimson Head zombies that approached the two unnoticed.

Bertha resorted to using her machete to slice off the arms of one zombie and cut its head off and Four Eyes simply made use of the environment to kill the other two.

The shootout ended and the zombies and enemy soldiers were dead, allowing Wolfpack to resume their quest.

Four Eyes quickly obtained a sample of one of the two dead Crimson Heads before joining her comrades.

All of a sudden, a bright light shone down on them and it was followed by several more like it. Forcing their eyes to quickly adjust to the surprising light, the group looked around and saw more Spec Ops men perched high above them on catwalk balconies. Each one was armed and ready to combat the U.S.S. unit.

"Take them out!" one of the Spec Ops members yelled.

"Motherfucker!" Spec Ops ambush! Get down!" Beltway yelled and they took cover behind a blockade of police cruisers and took turns firing at the enemy team.

Spotting three red, flammable barrels, Lupo remembered what happened with the previous barrel and focused her aim on the barrels and ignited one of them and that caused the others to go off in a chain reaction sequence. The damaging explosion caused devastating fatalities among the Spec Ops while a few were simply knocked off the catwalk and onto the ground.

With their business done here, the U.S.S. soldiers marched onward, executing any soldiers who survived the blast.

Eventually, they came across a gate entrance that led to the Raccoon City Cemetery, much to the irony of the Wolfpack members considering the events going on in town. Burial places were sometimes the focus of monster/ghost-themed stories and the like. Technically, the zombies of the city were created by means of a man-made virus and not by evil spirits or something like that.

Some of them commented on what they felt about going into the cemetery before carrying on.

Zombie shrieks echoed and they knew what was coming, as if they couldn't guess it correctly. They were going to have to fight their way to the cemetery's exit.

Another gang of Crimson Heads were spotted and as usual, Wolfpack brushed them off with lots of gunfire. Some of those creatures were formerly Spec Ops and Umbrella Security Service personnel. They were here before Wolfpack.

After that was concluded, the group walked further and down a stairpath and reached a part of the graveyard filled with structures for special burials. Possibly crematories.

As they skidded through the place, a sudden shaking movement was felt from the ground and soon more zombies appeared by literally rising from their graves, just like in old monster flicks and stories.

Spec Ops were seen entering the graveyard and shooting their way through the zombies and later, Wolfpack themselves.

The Umbrella group showed dominance against the government soldiers and they took the gate door that led them out of the dreaded graveyard and back onto the street once again.

A strange noise was heard from a nearby large warehouse and they decided to investigate.

When they entered the warehouse, the noise grew louder. It sounded like angry, savage roaring and Wolfpack knew that it was from a B.O.W. no doubt, but it sounded different and possibly a lot bigger than what the Wolfpack team fought through, maybe even different and bigger than William Birkin in his "G" form. They wondered what it could be.

"This must be Umbrella's warehouse. What the hell is all that noise?" Beltway said and asked.

"Let's get these doors open. Find the controls." she said after eyeing the warehouse's bay doors which were sealed off.

While searching for the doors' controls, the roar echoed again and it was followed by a strange, wet sound that gave chills to one of the operatives. It sounded gross.

Four Eyes found what they were looking for on a wall in the form of a switch and activated it.

Spectre, who wasn't looking at first, turned around to the direction of the doors. He grew suspicious of something dangerous waiting behind the doors and was too late to deliver his warning as the electronic doors slowly rose up and zombies emerged from it, just as he suspected.

But then the doors suddenly suffered a slight malfunction and stopped halfway open. The motor to the doors had died out, but that didn't prevent the zombies from continuing their attack on Wolfpack.

"Door motor went out. Hopefully just breakers. Let's find 'em!" Beltway said.

The zombies were killed and the group sweep searched the entire place, looking for the breaker switches that would jumpstart the doors.

Beltway found one on a wall and flipped it on. The switch glowed and beeped, meaning that it was working.

"Must be another one around here." Beltway told himself.

Another zombie mob crawled from under the malfunctioning doors and were also killed on the spot.

A second breaker switch was found and activated. Like the previous switch, it glowed and hummed.

"Got one!" Vector said and knifed a zombie that was walking his way.

The third and final switch was located and flipped on and with all three breakers now active, the bay doors were able to open all the way, granting Wolfpack entry into the depths of the warehouse as well as allowing the last mob of undead into the area and Wolfpack ended them.

Now they were inside a storage area that contained mountains of cardboard boxes and huge, wooden crates.

The vicious roar from before was heard again and Wolfpack guessed they were getting close to the source of it. Whatever it was, they felt certain that they could handle it like they did with William Birkin days before the local apocalypse began.

"Kill that thing!" a voice barked from a far distance. Shooting was audible after that, along with the same roaring and gunfire that sounded unfamiliar to the Wolfpack team yet they each had a hint at what kind of weapon was capable of doing that.

After a bit of exploring deeper into the factory, they found the source of the commotion. Another Spec Ops team was discovered scattering around the main area of the storage facility shooting at something large and Wolfpack, while unseen by the soldiers or their target, got a good glimpse of the action.

What the Spec Ops were firing at was a tremendous humanoid creature wearing a black trench coat and boots. Its face was utterly hideous in unimaginable ways and above all, it was wielding a large gatling gun that was attached to its right forearm and it was using it against the Spec Ops soldiers. It had already done away with at least nine of them.

Wolfpack chose to remain in hiding until the troops were all dead, that way they can fully focus on the gun-toting abomination that was doing them the favor of wasting their enemies. They had a wild guess that the B.O.W. was the Nemesis that Command told them about before.

"Command, we've reached the warehouse . . . and found the Nemesis creature. Right now, it's killing enemy Spec Ops soldiers and neither it or them know of our presence." said Bertha.

"Good. There should be a computer terminal inside. Use it to gain access to the B.O.W. programming facility." Command ordered and the signal stopped.

"You heard him. Let's move." Lupo said and the team did as instructed. For once, they were glad to be told to leave the compound first. They certainly didn't want to tackle the giant monstrosity just yet.

A computer switch was seen and Spectre used it.

For now, the group ignored the battle below and headed for an elevator inside the room and took it down.

While waiting to arrive at their destination, Command returned to feed them information about the facility.

"This is the facility where we program the highest grade B.O.W.s with the NE-a parasite before sending them into the field. There's an inactive T-103 inside the facility, a failed experiment. You'll be extracting the parasites from its brain to implant in the Nemesis. Collect the necessary components."

"Ohh, sounds like an operation. This could be fun." Bertha commented either gleefully or sarcastically, earning her questionable glares from her teammates even though they knew that things like what they were tasked to do were her specialty. They were also informed that the warehouse was but a cover to keep suspicion from outsiders off.

A minute later, the elevator stopped and Wolfpack stepped out and found themselves inside one of Umbrella's secret facilities. Now they had to find the programming lab and the failed T-103 Tyrant, recover its brain parasites and return to the surface to battle and repair the rogue Nemesis.

Simple, right?

They entered a section filled with the same kind of cryotubes they saw back in Birkin's lab, some on the area's bridge and others hanging above and the group were met by zombies dressed in scientist uniforms. They dispatched the infected and proceeded.

"Agh, this place is creepy! Let's hurry up." Beltway complained.

"What? Not man enough to walk in another underground laboratory?" Bertha teased, making him slightly annoyed.

With more than one way around the lab, the group split up to find the correct door to take.

One of them found it and they all regrouped there.

Upon entry, they noticed another zombie standing behind a room with a glass window. Believing the zombie to be just another nuisance, the group wanted to keep going without bothering to kill it when a spider-like creature appeared suddenly from behind the zombie and crawled all over it until it reached its upper back and fused with the zombie.

The new "spider-zombie" then began running around in the small room like a maniac, scratching at the walls and door to escape. Its quick movement and screams matched those of a Crimson Head zombie, but its body and head weren't red in color at all.

"Ok, what the hell is that thing?" Beltway asked.

"This is one of our most top secret facilities and it contains some of our most dangerous specimens. Exercise caution." Command warned them. It wasn't very much of an answer, but there was no time to bicker and Wolfpack continued moving, their guns raised at the new zombie in case it broke loose from the room.

From what their boss had mentioned, there were more of those parasitic spider things in the lab, so the group had to keep a careful eye out on their surroundings for the parasites could be lurking anywhere.

They walked down two stairways with caution and down onto the main floor where they all discovered a lone T-103 Tyrant unconscious and laying strapped onto a stretcher bed surrounded by medical technology and trapped inside a cage with laser grid beams.

Despite the creature being unresponsive to Wolfpack's presence, they still refused to let their guard down by even the slightest second, fearing that it might rise and attack anytime.

Because the Tyrant was incarcerated inside the laser cage, the team was going to have to locate a switch that would deactivate the cage to gain access.

"At least this one's not moving." Vector remarked, his comment being a reference to the Nemesis making one hell of a mess back on the surface.

Lupo instructed everyone to spread out and look for a way to disable the cage's barriers and they started searching.

A couple of zombies were found trapped behind another laser cage and, when they saw the Umbrella group, the two virus-ridden creatures began running at them, but the cage did a lot of damage to their bodies and while they actually did escape their confinement, they suddenly died because their limbs, heads and torsos were severed the instant they touched the grids.

Soon, the cages, including the one holding the inactive Tyrant monster, were shut down. To Wolfpack's relief, the creature still didn't move a muscle.

"Alright, now find a large syringe." said Command.

Bertha found one and regrouped with the rest.

"Now carefully extract the parasite from the T-103's neural cortex." Command instructed.

All six members were silently fearful about doing that until Bertha stepped up to handle the job while the others stood by with their weapons ready should the Tyrant awaken and wreak havoc.

Although she enjoyed performing her own brand of "surgery" on people, the German woman was feeling a little nervous herself. She had never done her type of work on a T-103 model before. This was going to be different from carving a regular person because the "patient" was not even human anymore to begin with.

"Now who's the scared one?" Beltway asked, a comeback from her earlier comment about his fear of being inside the lab.

"Shut up." Bertha whispered and focused on her task. She took in a deep breath and without another word, she quickly and fiercely jammed the needle directly into the Tyrant's head and sucked the parasite out of its head until it showed up inside the syringe.

She immediately stepped back and whipped out her handgun and raised it at the subject, her teammates doing the same with their weapons, all expecting the Tyrant to suddenly open its eyes, break free from its bonds and lunge at them.

It didn't do anything and they lowered their guns.

"Well, that was easy." Vector said and Bertha turned around and showed them the syringe and its new content. The parasite looked all bloody and gross.

"Command, we've successfully extracted the parasite." Lupo reported.

"Good. Now relocate the rogue Nemesis and repair it."

From afar, the sound of glass shattering was heard and Wolfpack turned quickly and encountered scientist zombies and also the new parasite zombie which somehow freed itself from its spot.

Wolfpack targeted the new zombie first before attacking the regular ones. It cost more ammo to kill the parasite zombie, probably because of its enhanced resistance to gunfire.

When the B.O.W.s were taken care of, the team escorted themselves back up the stairs and headed toward the elevator.

A deep groan was heard nearby, then a few snapping sounds. Thudding footsteps were heard next and then a deep, angry growl. Not good at all.

Wolfpack turned back to look and made a horrifying discovery: The T-103 had awakened, free from his imprisonment and was now pursuing after Wolfpack!

"Oh, shit! The Tyrant's reactivating!" Beltway shouted.

Every step the giant B.O.W. took rattled the ground as he approached the group, ready for battle.

"Without its control parasite, that T-103 will attack anything that moves!" Lupo warned.

Unwilling to stay and confront the beast, Wolfpack tried to open the door to escape, but it wouldn't budge!

"The door's locked! It has multiple keycard slots! We need those cards!" Four Eyes said.

Until they found the cards that would activate the doors to freedom, it seems Wolfpack were pretty much trapped in that lab room with the giant menace.

They scattered around, avoiding the creature as best as possible and shooting at him in the process. Bertha and Four Eyes chose to search for the required cards while their teammates kept the mindless Tyrant distracted for as long as they can.

The Tyrant received multiple shots to his body which had very little effect due to his bulletproof coat acting like body armor. However, his only weak point was his very own head, the only unprotected part of the creature.

Taking a chance, Vector fired a shot at the Tyrant's face and he grunted in pain and shielded his head and face with one of his arms while continuing to follow them.

"Go for his head!" Vector told everyone and they all concentrated fire on the creature's head, the latter being forced to keep shielding his head.

Meanwhile, the two female members not battling the menacing T-103 kept searching for the keycards. They had a few run-ins with a few zombies, both regular and parasitic, and had them put down.

Bertha found one and voiced her discovery to the team.

Soon, that was followed when Four Eyes found a second card and replicated Bertha's statement.

The last keycard was found in the same room the first parasite zombie was seen in and the two announced their full collection of the three keycards.

"Well, then bring them over so we can leave this place!" Vector said in a panic.

Four Eyes and Bertha regrouped with the unit who were still struggling with the savage Tyrant who was now running at them at top speed like a football player.

Seeing that, Wolfpack started to run too, but to the facility's exit.

The keycards were scanned by the door's scanning system and it beeped positively and opened. Wolfpack quickly fled straight through without hesitation.

Lupo glanced behind her to check on the Tyrant and saw the creature following them. During the chase, the T-103 was sidetracked by loose zombies and swatted them away to catch up to the U.S.S. soldiers faster.

They opened another electronic door ahead and bolted inside. The door slid shut and they were now safe from their silent enemy who was left behind.

Each person took a glance around and found nothing interesting to boot. All they desired was to find another way back up to the surface and complete their job with the homicidal and out-of-control Nemesis. Going back to the same elevator from before thanks to the Tyrant.

"The security doors are locked down. We need to activate both consoles." said Vector. In order to exit the facility, they had to disable the security doors.

Parasite zombies came running toward them and another firefight commenced. Some of those creatures were Crimson Heads fused with the parasites. A deadly combination.

One security console was spotted in a computer room during the short scuffle and Lupo took the chance to approach and disable it, leaving one more left to find and disable as well.

The second console was seen and killed off too, allowing Wolfpack to finally disperse. More zombies kept coming at them and they held them off while running off to the next door which was taking a slow time to open.

They made it to a part of the underground lab that housed more specimen tubes and zombies.

The parasite zombies weren't the only trouble Wolfpack dealt with, eventually a door from far away was rammed down and the soldiers dreaded from knowing what caused it.

"Shit! He's back!" Beltway yelled as the familiar figure of the Tyrant came into view and gave chase to the them once again.

Knowing of an elevator somewhere nearby, Lupo told the squad to follow her and they complied, not willing to stay and risk getting pummeled by a super-strong mistake of nature in a trench coat. Besides, they needed to save their firepower for the Nemesis, they had a strong feeling that they were going to need it.

The elevator was seen and the team each sprinted twice as hard and dove inside and quickly pressed the buttons to seal its doors and the elevator began to ascend. The Tyrant was too late at catching them and grunted angrily in defeat.

"That . . . was close!" Spectre said.

"No, _this_ is close." Beltway said.

Seconds later, the elevator brought them all back to the surface in the warehouse where the Nemesis was seen standing alone and waiting for more opponents as the Spec Ops people were all slaughtered. Their bodies were seen sprawled everywhere with bullet wounds on them.

"Command, we've located the Nemesis again. Proceeding with the objective." Lupo said.

"In its damaged state, that Nemesis will attack anything that moves, just like the T-103 did back in the facility. You'll need to disable it first." said Command.

Now came the tough part of their mission: Wolfpack had to battle the Nemesis to weaken it long enough to inject the parasite into its head and get it back under control again without lethal means. The gatling gun the creature was armed with was going to make it a much more challenging enemy than the Tyrant.

The Nemesis discovered Wolfpack's location and growled viciously. It raised its weapon high and prepared to shoot.

"Open fire!" Lupo yelled and Wolfpack raised their own weapons and fired at the monster.

Separating and taking cover, the Wolfpack team members barely avoided being hit as the creature's bullets sprayed everywhere like mosquitoes. Boxes and crates were torn to pieces and several zombies that invaded the warehouse were shred apart like paper.

Like with all Tyrant creatures, the Nemesis's coat was impervious to projectiles and most physical damage. The only part of the monster that can be harmed was its entire head.

The Nemesis spotted Spectre running for cover and trained its gunfire on him. While it missed him, it did manage to hit a red barrel near it and the object exploded and did some great harm to the monster.

Noticing that, Wolfpack quickly fired at the beast again while it was dazed. Believing that now was the perfect time to inject the parasite into the Nemesis, Bertha slung her gun over her shoulder and decided to give it a try.

"Bertha, wait!" Lupo called out, but the former ignored her.

Bertha approached the towering creature, the syringe gun ready in her hands. However, the Nemesis turned its head and saw her.

Cursing in German, Bertha was about to retreat to safety when the B.O.W. reared back its right arm, the one holding its gun, and took a backhanded swing at Bertha and knocked her back toward a pile of boxes.

She groaned weakly and slowly and painfully sat up just in time to see the Nemesis getting ready to finish her off with its gun and her eyes went wide behind her mask.

Fortunately for her, that didn't happen when Wolfpack turned the creature's attention away from her with covering fire, saving her from death.

Bertha stood up as fast as possible, placed her syringe gun back into place in favor of her previous weapon and dashed to safety behind the crates. She decided to fully wait until the Nemesis was too weak to continue fighting before trying something like that again. She mentally scolded herself for going through with the plan prematurely and her newfound pain from being smacked by the creature was the penalty.

Lupo tossed a flash grenade at the creature's position and it detonated and blinded and deafened the Nemesis for a shot time, but it quickly overcame the effects faster than a person or a regular B.O.W. would have done.

Vector turned to Bertha and demanded the syringe gun. She asked if he was going to replicate her plan of ending the fight sooner and he nodded. Convinced, she gave the syringe to him and he activated his cloak mode and proceed to sneak up on the hostile Nemesis. Before doing that, he warned his teammates to hold their fire for now to avoid any friendly fire incidents and they agreed.

To help Vector succeed with his plan undetected, the others worked to keep the creature's attention away from him by mocking it, which worked.

Injecting the enemy B.O.W. wasn't the only reason why Vector was doing this, he also wanted to see if his cloak can hide him from the Nemesis' sight unlike other virus monsters. He figured that he should have tested his theory on the Tyrant back in the underground lab.

He got close enough to the target which still had no idea of his whereabouts. Despite his dangerous and fearless background, even Vector was freaked out by the idea of being within close range of the giant. Fighting a Tyrant wasn't the same as fighting zombies or Spec Ops.

Ready to risk it all, Vector raised the syringe gun and plunged its needle into the creature's head. Despite his success in doing that, he didn't actually get to press the button on the gun that would release the parasite inside the Nemesis as it roared angrily from being stabbed and flung him off.

He fell to the ground and the impact caused his cloak to go haywire and revealed his presence to the Nemesis much to Vector's dismay.

The creature yanked the syringe gun out of its flesh and threw it away. Wolfpack considered themselves luck that the creature didn't choose to destroy the gun otherwise that would have proven to be a major problem. It raised its large foot and tried to step on the downed Umbrella agent, but Vector immediately rolled out of the way and quickly scrambled back to cover with his comrades.

"Didn't go well with you either, no?" Bertha asked, her question showing a fusion of teasing and sarcasm in her voice.

"Aw, shut up." Vector retorted irritatingly and returned to just shooting the enemy.

Looking at the approaching zombies, Lupo ordered Four Eyes to throw a pheromone bomb at the Nemesis, hoping to have the zombies serve as a distraction and obstacle for the creature.

Four Eyes obeyed and took out one bomb, got it ready and hurled it at the monster while it wasn't looking at her as it was busy shooting at the other members.. Since they work on any undead thing that moves, she thought that it would work against the Nemesis too.

The bomb slapped the Nemesis on its back and it turned around to see what hit it. He looked down and saw the pheromone device laying in place and releasing its red gas which showered the creature from head to toe.

Every zombie nearby got a whiff of the irresistible gas and immediately darted toward the affected Nemesis and attacked, biting and clawing at it all over.

Because of this, the Nemesis stopped its attack on Wolfpack to fight off the crazed creatures. It killed many zombies via hitting, throwing, stomping and shooting until the gas dissolved and its effect wore off, freeing any surviving zombies from their stupor and they stumbled away after realizing that their target was another infected creature like them.

However, the Nemesis didn't let them off that easily, it shot and slapped them to death until none remained and returned to what it did previously.

Throughout the ordeal, Four Eyes was interested in learning now that her pheromone caused the infected to go against each other rather than just at uninfected people.

Bertha, when at a safe distance and still in pain from the Nemesis' attack on her, pulled out her own syringe gun, turned one of the needles on herself that contained the "Stimpack" chemical and stuck the needle in her own arm. She pressed its trigger and injected the liquid inside. It sweeped throughout her entire bloodstream in seconds.

She took some time to shake herself to clear up the chemical's disorientation side effect before making a selection of another drug in her gun, this time to use against the Nemesis.

After making said selection, Bertha then shot a launching needle, chemical tube included, at the Nemesis's neck. The beast felt the needle's prick and reached out to tear it off. By the time that happened though, the drug had already entered the Nemesis. In a matter of minutes, the monster was going to feel a slight pain throughout its monstrous body. Because the Nemesis was created as a result of T-Virus research, Bertha's "Neutralizer" drug was going to effect the creature negatively, just not so much due to its massive size and because only one needle and dose was used. If Bertha had injected the Nemesis with more than one dose of the same drug, then the damage to it would have greatly increased and become a great devastation to it. The reason she didn't do this was because she felt that an overdose of the chemical could possibly kill the creature and Wolfpack were instructed to defeat it in a non-lethal manner.

Anther grenade was thrown at the Nemesis, a frag-type this time, and it exploded and harmed the target.

The lone Nemesis wanted to retaliate, but it began feeling dizzy and disoriented. Its senses were started to dull and it saw everything in blurs and swayed its movement like a complete drunk.

To the creature, it was as if reality was spinning uncontrollably and its legs and arms were feeling weak like rubber. It couldn't watch where it was aiming and shooting and was having some difficulty in holding its gatling gun correctly as if it were too heavy.

Bertha realized that her anti-B.O.W. drug was working perfectly and the combination of Wolfpack's gunfire and the drug, as well as the zombie attack from earlier, damaged the monster to the fullest which was further proven when, after taking extra damage from the drug and the Wolfpack team, the Nemesis was no longer able to resume the battle and dropped its gatling gun and fell to the ground on its hands and knees.

"The target's down! Someone implant him with the parasite shot, now!" Lupo shouted.

That being her cue, Bertha found and retrieved the syringe gun the Nemesis threw away earlier and she hurried toward where the Nemesis was unmoving.

Forgetting what happened before, Bertha raised her syringe and drove the needle into the head of the Nemesis. Unlike last time, she actually succeeded in the deployment process as the parasite escaped its imprisonment and made its way inside its new host.

After that was done, Bertha yanked the needle out and she and everyone else stepped back as a precaution.

At first, it appeared as if nothing was happening. Then soon, the downed Nemesis started growling softly and spasmed on the floor like a fish on dry land.

"Wait for it . . ." Lupo told the troops when they had their weapons trained on the B.O.W.

As if on direct cue, the Nemesis's only eye opened suddenly, making Wolfpack nervous but they still held their ground, ready to take the creature out even if it was against their orders.

A beeping sound was heard from somewhere in the warehouse and the troops and the Nemesis all turned to the sound's direction. What they were seeing was a large case made out of metal. None of the Wolfpack people noticed it at all before and during the fight.

As if on cue, the case opened by itself and revealed inside a single rocket launcher, fully loaded and ready to use.

Despite its battle injuries, the Nemesis began to sit up with ease, dazed and confused. Wolfpack turned their sights back on it and prepared to engage the monster should it fail to be consumed the parasite's influence and resume hostility toward them again.

The Nemesis looked around and spotted the case and rocket launcher. It analyzed the weapon and learned of its details like a cyborg or a computer. Its programming then gave the giant its first and only objective:

"**TERMINATE S.T.A.R.S.**"

The Nemesis scooped up its gatling gun, got up and attached the gun to its left arm instead of its right arm and began walking toward the weapon case. It picked up the rocket launcher, examined it and started walking away and out of the warehouse to begin its mission.

Wolfpack lowered their weapons and sighed in relief as they now knew the parasite had worked and the Nemesis creature was back under Umbrella's control.

As the Nemesis reached the exit, it uttered one word and one word only.

"S.T.A.R.S.!"

The hunt for the city's S.T.A.R.S. unit was on for the enhanced and dangerous B.O.W.

With the Nemesis gone to complete its quest and their mission completed here, Wolfpack left the warehouse through an alternate path and awaited further orders from U.S.S. Command.

"Now that was one tough son of a bitch!" Beltway said and the others had to agree with him on that statement.

After repairing the Nemesis and sentencing any remaining S.T.A.R.S. members to death, Wolfpack hoped that Command will contact them and give them a ride out of town. They were becoming weary of dealing with zombies and wanted out now.

When they set foot out of the warehouse, two things happened. They felt a slight tremor everywhere like an earthquake, making them wonder what caused it for a moment before their thoughts were interrupted by the beeping sound of their radio comms.

"What is it, Command?" Vector asked.

"Management needs you at the Raccoon City Police Department. Umbrella has a secret arrangement with police chief Brian Irons guaranteeing the cooperation and discretion of the police department. It has come to our attention that he has been compiling information implicating Umbrella in a variety of 'morally questionable' activities. He may be looking to use the information to extort Umbrella. Get rid of his Intel and make damn sure there aren't any police officers left to report anything. The prospect of extraction is high if the mission is a success."

Hearing that last part made the Delta Team troops feel better. It also was a relief for them to hear that the next mission given to them was to be their final one tonight before calling it quits and leaving Raccoon City for good. Wolfpack agreed to see it through.

"Copy. We're on it." Lupo said.

"Good! Time is at a premium, so get a move on Wolfpack! Over and out." said Command and the line ended.

The looked around for where to go to begin and started walking. Their next destination was where most of the town's police were always located: the city's police station.

"Maybe after this, we can finally get out of here." Lupo informed the team who were very much with her on that.

"That better be true. We most definitely need a break from our jobs." said Four Eyes.

Sometime later, they entered the remains of a slum apartment building and climbed its stairs until they reached the rooftop.

Below them on the ground were wandering zombies, a police motorcycle that was turned over and there was an unfinished structure beyond that led down. Since it was the only way to get down to the ground, the group walked it down and killed the zombies.

Around them were nothing but dead bodies and discarded bags of trash and walls smeared with blood and vomit stains.

Going through an alleyway to reach the street, a door on their left burst open in flames and a pair of zombified cops rushed right out and stumbled to the unit who neutralized them right on the spot.

Wolfpack made it to the open littered street and glanced around for more enemies.

Eyeing a kennel with a dog sign on the front, they also noticed it was empty and torn open from the inside out.

"The dogs are gone . . ." Lupo said quietly and with dread in her voice. Knowing what they meant, she mentally shuddered just from thinking about it. If there was one thing she didn't enjoy besides being in a town overrun by walking dead (and being away from her kids for a prolonged period of time), it was dog. Especially T-Virus dogs in this matter!

Just then, they heard a demonic-sounding howl in the distance and the troops quickly turned to look and saw a pack of five infected canines heading directly toward them at top speed!

"Shit!" screamed Lupo.

The pack's leader immediately targeted Lupo and pounced on her just when she raised her weapon in defense.

Her teammates were busy dealing with the other dogs, leaving Lupo on her own. She struggled with the dog as it tried to bite the French woman who was blocking its attempt with her rifle. With determined strength, Lupo finally freed herself by poking the dog's right eye and shoved it off herself.

The dog shook off the pain and got ready to repeat its attack, but Lupo quickly took aim and fired a couple shots at it. One of her bullets hit the dog in the forehead and it fell dead.

Lupo breathed a sigh of relief and got back up to aid the team who by then had already killed the rest of the undead animal pack.

"You alright?" Vector asked. Lupo nodded and wiped off some of the dog's bloodstains from her uniform that splattered when she killed it and the team kept moving, unwilling to stay and be live bait for anymore dogs or infected creatures.

Another stairway was seen and the group took it upward and they opened a door that, ironically, led them into the very place they were assigned to go: the R.P.D. building.

Upon realizing where they were, Lupo immediately reported to their boss.

"Command, we've entered the police station. No sign of survivors." she said. Although they were glad the station was void of survivors, the feeling of being the only living ones inside still felt creepy.

"The Intel you're looking for is in the police chief's office. Take care of it." said Command.

Now they had to destroy Intel in the office of Brian Irons. Once that was vanquished from existence, only then would Wolfpack finally be allowed to leave Raccoon City.

Carefully moving about the narrow halls of the station's backroom with their weapons clutched and ready, the team found a hallway with a tiger statue on the side. At first, they mistook the statue for an actual tiger and got ready to shoot it, but then they restrained themselves upon realizing it was fake. The statue looked so real and life-like. They felt kinda stupid for believing it was real. Then again, this was the city of the dead, so anything can happen.

Opening an electronic door on their left, which wasn't locked by the way, the unit found themselves inside the office that belonged to the man that was once in charge of the town's police force. Fortunately for them, Irons wasn't anywhere in the room.

The office was decorated with books, a few American flags and lots of animal statues and trophies and two heads of a deer and a bull or moose. Irons was approximately a huge fan of taxidermy and what Wolfpack saw inside that small room told them so.

"We've reached Irons' office, Command." Four Eyes said.

"The Intel should be in that office somewhere. Search it." Command ordered and the six soldiers began the hunt for their objective. If Irons were here and saw this, he'd flip out, not that the Wolfpack soldiers were afraid of him and his temper as they had more firepower than he.

While snooping around, Beltway stumbled upon another life-like animal statue and nearly panicked, but then calmed down. This time, it was a statue of the city's most prized mascot in which it borrowed its name, a raccoon. He found it to be highly ironic and slapped it away out of anguish for being scared of it.

Something was seen on top of the room's main desk and when it was examined, it was discovered to be the Intel Wolfpack were sent to find and destroy. It was but a stack of paper documents.

"Here we are . . ." Lupo whispered.

"That's it?" Bertha asked, hoping that this was their last objective for tonight and its destruction meant home sweet home for Wolfpack. The idea of killing their way through monsters and vicious dogs to reach the police station just to find a pile of papers sitting on a desk once owned by a certain fat man who ran this dump was personally and lightly disappointing for her.

"That's it. Now someone just burn it already so we can get out of this shithole." Beltway said.

Spectre remembered having one match he kept from the records room back in City Hall and used it to incinerate the Intel.

Now that all the evidence showcasing Umbrella as the culprit behind Raccoon City's imminent doom was wiped from existence, that meant that Wolfpack's mission was finished and now came the one thing they were waiting for all night: freedom.

"Command, the Intel has been found and destroyed." Vector said.

"It's about time. Management has been getting nervous. Well, that should be it for Raccoon City. No one's left to expose us. Now get out of there and we'll arrange your extraction."

Wolfpack had never been so delighted to hear those words. All they had to do now was hold out in the station until their ride came. That shouldn't be any problem for them.

Suddenly, the he hallway corridor outside the office became infested with Licker monsters and as if Wolfpack assumed they'd be safe inside the confides of the office room, one of the creatures burst through one of the office's two doors and led its kind right in.

Why couldn't it be zombies instead? Lupo asked herself mentally and helped the team in pushing back the monsters.

Fighting inside the small space of the police chief's office was not a good plan and so Wolfpack decided to take the fight to a more open location and hurried toward another exit after killing a few of the Lickers. But then, zombies, dressed as cops, stormed in and ambushed the unit.

Lupo had apparently gotten her wish.

Trying to keep from being boxed in, the group forced their way through the undead and made it to the station's main hall. It was large and perfect for battling the B.O.W.s which were now everywhere and invading the entire station's main area. It was like a zombie convention there.

Right now, the soldiers were all standing on the second balcony of the hall, filled with zombies and the floor below them was zombie-free. They had to climb down.

As if their balcony couldn't be crowed enough, an extra mob of zombies burst in through the other side of the balcony.

Because the creatures couldn't climb up or down, Wolfpack looked around for a ladder to use to climb down to the first floor and when one was spotted, they made their decent downward and away from the zombies. Normally, the troops would kill the creatures on sight, but since they weren't planning on staying in town for long, they chose to bypass them and let them be someone else's problem, not that there was anyone else alive in the city as they believed.

A bright light flashed outside of the building and Wolfpack sprinted toward the station's entrance/exit doors. It was their extraction helicopter and they were very pleased to see it.

Standing near the station's main gate doors, the Wolfpack team were ready to leave right about now. Raccoon City was going to be nothing but a distant memory to them.

All of a sudden, a crash and an explosion both happened somewhere in the city near the police building and they turned and saw smoke rising from the supposed spot.

Not caring about it, the team kept walking to where their ride was seen still hovering. But just when they opened the gate and signaled for the chopper to descend a little more so they can climb aboard, the helicopter suddenly started ascending back up and away from the unit much to their great displeasure.

"What is the pilot doing?! He's supposed to be extracting us right now!" Vector said angrily.

Lupo decided to call this in. "Command, the helicopter is flying away from us. What's going on?"

"Delta Team, your priorities have changed. We've just been informed that there is still another survivor out there and caused a collision with a tanker truck just near your location. Extraction is postponed. Get over to that crash site and examine it. Management doesn't have any more patience for this!" Command explained.

The Wolfpack members felt angered and they had every right to be. They had already done everything they were told to do and just when they were going to fly out of the town, they were now ordered to stay a little while longer despite having completed their end of the bargain for Umbrella.

"Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me!" Beltway yelled in a fit of rage.

Command wouldn't reply to Wolfpack's protest and, feeling they had no choice, the group decided involuntarily to investigate and discover who or what caused their escape to be delayed when they least expected it.

If there was another survivor out there, all they had to do was simply kill the target and get it over with. Whomever it was picked a severely bad time to arrive in Raccoon City.

Running to the crash site as fast as possible and killing any creature that saw them, Wolfpack had made it to said crash site three minutes later and found it in complete ruin.

A police car was seen crunched between a building and a toppled tanker truck vehicle, both in flames and Wolfpack guessed that the truck exploded first after the collision considering that it was filled with flammable fluid.

As for the totaled car, its former driver was nowhere in sight and must've left. Although aware now of there being another survivor somewhere in town that needed to die in order for them to leave, Wolfpack didn't exactly assume that it was another R.P.D. officer just because the wrecked car was from the city's police force. With Raccoon in deep peril and all, they thought it was possible that the driver could have been a simple civilian who borrowed the car to escape from something or someone. But to Delta Team and Umbrella, the newcomer was to be found and eliminated at all costs, police officer or not. They also wondered if more than one person rode in the same car, making it possible that the survivor couldn't have come to town alone. Plus, their boss didn't say whether or not it was a police officer.

Unknown to them, their new target was not only accompanied by another person, but it was indeed a cop, but they wouldn't know that until much later.

They searched the entire spot for any clues to the survivor's whereabouts and didn't find a thing and so the hunt for the survivor or survivors was on as of now.

"I'm sure the person . . . won't last five minutes out there . . . with those infected things." Spectre commented.

"Probably. Unless that person is someone with high-combat and survival experience." Bertha said, outdoing Spectre's statement.

The reason behind her comment was because of the zombie corpses all over the site. They all looked beaten, broken and stabbed in a brutal fashion. Wolfpack wondered if the missing aforementioned survivor did this to the creatures. If so, then he, or she (they didn't quite know the target's gender), may be considered armed and dangerous and what Spectre said about their new target dying quickly could be proven wrong and Bertha could be right.

Because the double vehicle wreckage was blocking their path, Wolfpack was going to have to find another way around.

After careful searching, Lupo saw an open garage door that led into a parking area that was barely lit.

Believing that the survivor must have gone through there, Lupo directed the team inside and they closed the garage door to keep any infected out and as they did, the car and tanker truck exploded again. Now they were glad to have gotten far from that in time.

A hissing sound crept to them and Lickers appeared inside the garage and another short fight commenced. It wasn't easy to spot them all thanks to the darkness they caused with the EMP detonation earlier.

The Lickers perished and Wolfpack were starting to pry open an exit door that was tough to do as it once ran on electricity. While waiting, they noticed slow, moving shadows under the door along with shuffling feet. Wolfpack knew it meant zombies.

As much as she hated to do this, Lupo decided to call their boss for help in finding the survivor since they had no clue where to begin.

"Wolfpack to Command. I regret to say that we lost the survivor. Whoever it was isn't here and could be far away by now." she said.

"You lost them!? Damn!" Command said angrily.

Before anyone else from the team could say anything else, Command spoke up again. This time, it was not going to be good news for the team.

"Management's run out of patience, so we're going to Plan B. Delta Team, until you find and terminate that survivor, you're on your own!" With that said, the line stopped and this time, for good. The soldiers were in stunned and shocked silence. Umbrella had recently abandoned the team and they were left at the mercy of the B.O.W. population.

"Uhh . . . Plan B? Ok." said Beltway.

"All we need to know is we kill him or her or them. Right?" Bertha questioned.

"Maybe just a bad transmission, yeah?" asked Beltway.

When the garage door was finally opened fully, the zombies behind it advanced toward the now-disavowed U.S.S. operatives and were gunned down quickly as possible. It was difficult to see where they fired because another police car was present, this one undamaged unlike the previous one, and blinded the team's vision views with its headlights and silent sirens.

"Attack!" somebody yelled out.

The Wolfpack troops adjusted their vision to see who was around (as if they didn't know) and quickly realized that another Spec Ops ambush was in wait for them.

Vector randomly fired his gun, killing the same man who ordered the attack on them and guided the team into evading the incoming gunfire protruding from all over and took cover.

One of them fired a grenade at them from a grenade launcher and the resulting blast knocked down Spectre and Lupo.

The firefight lasted no more than six minutes and afterward, Wolfpack had cleared out the front and moved out in the open more and took cover again after being shot at by Spec Ops reinforcements perched on top of a few buildings across a gas station.

Lupo withdrew her sniper rifle and spent its final rounds against a couple of their shooters and when her gun clicked dry, Spectre returned to being the team's only sniper and picked off several enemies by himself.

When the fight concluded after killing the Spec Ops, Wolfpack sweep searched the place and found a large, gold box that contained a three-burst assault rifle gun with four extra ammo clips. Having interest in it, Lupo traded her sniper rifle for the new weapon. She wasn't a sniping pro anyway.

Extra ammo for each soldier's weapon was found in a second ammunition case and they stocked up on it.

As they were getting ready to leave to tend to their current problem, they heard something and it was getting closer.

"What the hell is that noise?" Lupo asked.

"Sounds like a chopper. Extraction perhaps?" Vector commented.

"I highly doubt it." said Four Eyes.

From what U.S.S. Command said not too long ago, it was very unlikely that the people back at Umbrella HQ would come to their senses and send the previous chopper back to save Wolfpack.

Vector and Four Eyes were correct about two things though. Firstly, a helicopter was seen flying their way, but not for the reason the former believed. Instead, it was coming for what the latter guessed was bad news for them.

Besides the rotating machinery, a human-sounding groan was heard close by and they turned and spotted one Spec Ops soldier that had survived the earlier gun battle. He looked badly wounded in his chest and legs.

He reached for his sidearm, but was immediately killed by Vector who took out his knife and threw it at the man's head.

Wolfpack looked up and saw not one helicopter, but three helicopters flying into town. Each one appeared to be carrying six canisters in metal baskets attached to hooks. All three choppers had the Umbrella logo painted on them, signifying their alliance to Umbrella.

On the ground, the Wolfpack team wondered to themselves where the choppers were heading and, most importantly, why one helicopter was hovering above them while the others were splitting up. One thing was for certain: it wasn't there to evacuate the stranded, paramilitary group that's for sure.

The helicopter above them released three of its canisters and flew away. One canister dropped in the middle of the street in front of Wolfpack. The second canister slammed on top of a white car, triggering its alarm and the third one landed and crushed a dead Spec Ops operative. Dark red blood poured out from underneath the canister.

The three canisters then began to open and out stepped three Hunters, giving the Wolfpack troops a mere fright.

"Aww, shit!" Beltway screamed.

"They're dropping MA-121's! Those things will come after all of us!" Lupo said.

"And Umbrella . . . would know that. Right!?" Spectre questioned. He was suspicious about the company doing this intentionally.

The group had to counter the fierce Hunter assault first before getting out of there otherwise the reptilian freaks would just follow them until one side was gone.

Out of desperation, Beltway threw a flash grenade and while its blast radius blinded and deafened the creatures, the grenade also did the same with the unit. Beltway didn't bother to lure the monsters away first before doing what he did.

"Hey! Watch where you're aiming, huh?!" Lupo scolded the instant her senses were revived. Despite the mishap, it was a good thing flash bangs affected B.O.W.s too.

_Whoops!_ Beltway thought.

The group resumed their harrowing journey after killing the Hunters. One of them remembered hearing about a few safehouses being in the city and after informing the rest, they all decided to find one and seek refuge. For now, safety was their first priority, finding and killing the survivor(s) would come next and, with a little luck on their side, they'd escape Raccoon and have a few words with their boss and the rest of Umbrella about ditching them.

They rounded an alley corner and came across more zombies and, later on, three more Hunter drop pods. Not having the guts or patience to deal with the virus creations, Wolfpack just stuck to evading the creatures.

Four Eyes threw another pheromone bomb behind herself during their run and the red gas cloud bathed the B.O.W.s and they immediately turned on one another, including the Hunters which were now exchanging deadly blows with the affected zombies and themselves.

Another gas station was found along with Spec Ops members who were just about to abandon the area when the U.S.S. team came into their sights.

Again, the two sides clashed with each other until every Spec Ops person was dead. The conflict ended faster when Vector cloaked himself and butchered the enemy soldiers while Beltway picked up a dropped grenade launcher and used it against the Spec Ops. Despite not being unable to see Vector while invisible like Spectre can, Beltway nevertheless was able hit his targets perfectly without causing a friendly-fire mishap.

The demolitions expert gloated in victory afterwards.

Spec Ops reinforcements were discovered coming in from one direction, and to make matters worse, Hunter drop pods landed several feet away from the two opposing forces and the occupants exited said pods and roared loudly.

"Fuck this! Let's beat it!" Beltway suggested. Agreeing with that, Wolfpack turned and fled off, leaving the Hunters and the Spec Ops to fend for themselves.

Each member of Wolfpack made mental reminders that if they ever survived the outbreak, they are to never adopt pet reptiles ever.

The team made it to an unoccupied shelter and shut its door to prevent any living and undead foes from finding them.

They ventured through the shelter's back and were about to open a door when Spectre intervened with a warning of a zombie mob waiting on the other side for any unsuspecting prey to enter.

Thanks to Spectre's quick heads-up, the team decided to turn the tables against the zombies and so one of them scooped up a discarded beer bottle and threw it at the door, shattering it. This caused the zombies to growl and plow through the door, allowing Wolfpack to kill the mob all at once. What was ironic was that nearly all of those zombies were once police officers.

A zombie grabbed Lupo who cursed the creature for touching her and shoved it off and killed it by impaling her knife into its eyes and thorax.

The team checked the dead zombies to try identifying any of them as the one they were hunting, but all of the corpses turned up negative. The zombies' half-decayed appearances suggested that they were infected days ago before Wolfpack were deployed into town. If the survivor were among the undead, then he or she wouldn't have looked like the aforementioned zombies. Wolfpack had to keep searching.

They moved deeper into a back alley, seeing nothing but dumpsters, graffiti-sprayed walls and a few shopping carts filled with beverage cans and bottles and tents meant for homeless folks. Still no sign of their target. Whoever it was must've had taken extensive cardio training

The hunt was becoming long and grueling for them. Why'd there have to be another survivor to come and ruin things for Wolfpack?

"Let's just get to a safe house for now." she said and they agreed. Their target can wait a while and they needed a break.

Going past the alley and re-entering the streets, they once again came under fire by Spec Ops troops, irritating Wolfpack.

The battle between the two factions was longer than usual due to the Spec Ops having extra soldiers on their side, outnumbering the Wolfpack team. But that would not overcome them.

A grenade from the Spec Ops was tossed at Wolfpack and before anyone could get to cover, Lupo intercepted and quickly threw it back at their enemies.

One Spec Ops soldier saw their own grenade land nearby and shouted for his teammates to run, but the grenade exploded and killed that same person and a few others who were near and couldn't escape in time.

Wolfpack advanced to new positions after killing some of the enemy soldiers and engaged the others until it was over and they started moving out again.

Six more Hunter pods were spotted standing in front of an old movie theater. The group expected another battle with the pods' inhabitants, but the pod doors didn't open, meaning that either the B.O.W.s inside were locked in or didn't wake up yet.

Both possibilities being a good thing for them, the unit members had to be careful not to make any loud, sudden sounds or movements around the pods if they wished to avoid another fight with the green creatures.

As they slowly and cautiously made their way past the monster pods, a bullet belonging to a sniper rifle was fired at Wolfpack and missed. This forced the group to take cover behind a few turned-over jeeps from their unseen assassin and away from the pods.

While hiding, Spectre poked his head out to get an ID on their shooter even though he already had a hint. He saw fourteen Spec Ops soldiers far away from where they were and they, the Spec Ops, began shooting.

The other Wolfpack members glared at the pods and saw their doors opening, revealing the dreaded Hunter creatures which were now fully awake and ready for combat.

"Aw, hell!" said Vector.

"Let's hope those Hunters target those Spec Ops bastards first." Lupo said.

Three of the Hunters saw the Spec Ops team and lunged for them while the other three that remained behind noticed Wolfpack and attacked them, forcing the group to fight back.

One Hunter took a deep gulp of air and let it all out in a single, ferocious roar, knocking over most of them.

Another Hunter lashed out at Vector, but it missed him and, for a brief moment, it was left vulnerable for a gunshot by him to its right eye.

The creature howled in pain and covered its injured eye with one claw hand and swiped with its second hand, trying to catch someone closeby.

Its fury came to a stop when Vector fired additional shots at it and plunged his knife under its large chin, carving it open and the Hunter bled to death.

Beltway found a discarded flamethrower weapon and, hoping it still carried some leftover fuel, he aimed it at his enemies, squeezed the weapon's trigger and fire spewed from the flamethrower's nozzle. The Hunters were engulfed in a massive inferno cloud and ran around, screaming and trying to kill the man who lit them up until the flames weakened them enough to end them.

With the creatures dead, the group turned to witness what became of the Spec Ops group. It turned out that the other three Hunters butchered five soldiers before succumbing to excessive gunfire. Those who survived the ordeal turned their gunfire on Wolfpack.

Vector was asked to put his camouflage to use and dispatch the enemy soldiers. He flipped open his wrist computer, pressed a button and he was literally out of sight.

He stood up from his spot and calmly jogged across a small, grassy field, unnoticed by anyone.

Vector made it to where the Spec Ops stood, firing their weaponry at Wolfpack. They were completely unaware that one of their enemies was standing directly behind them, ready to drop them all like the fresh meat that they were.

Vector gripped his knife, grinned an evil grin behind his mask and went to work in slaughtering the vulnerable, unsuspecting agents.

One by one they fell, yelping and bleeding from Vector's knife attacks.

The last surviving Spec Ops person fired his assault rifle blindly everywhere, hoping to catch the homicidal Umbrella agent that killed off his teammates.

One of the soldier's bullets deflected off of Vector's body armor, causing his stealth mode to crackle and spark and this revealed little of Vector's form. Seeing this, the soldier aimed and got ready to shoot, but the U.S.S. soldier quickly slapped the man's gun away and carved open his throat and esophagus like a fish.

The unlucky Spec Ops member dropped his gun and expelled gargling noises and fell limp on the ground.

Sighing from exhaustion and satisfaction, Vector lowered his knife and deactivated his camouflage. He looked down at his wrist computer to check on his suit's status and learned that he didn't consume so much energy this time, but if that were to happen, the mode would not only deactivate on its own, but it would also take about three to five minutes to fully recharge before it can be used again. That would spell trouble for him if he unwillingly de-cloaked anywhere near his foes, but since there were no more enemies around, he felt no need to worry about it.

"All clear. Move up." he said into his headset.

The team moved away from their hiding places and walked through the ruins until they caught up with Vector.

Four Eyes stopped for a moment to extract some DNA samples from one of the dead Hunters and one zombie with the use of another syringe gun, similar to what Bertha did with the T-103 Tyrant back in the underground facility when they dealt with the Nemesis. She pierced the gun's needle directly into the heads of the dead creatures and sucked out brain tissue and blood and stored them inside the syringe's tubes separately.

Normally, the idea of vicious monsters running free in a city killing and feasting on the population would frighten anyone, but to someone like Christine Yamata a.k.a. Four Eyes, the citywide outbreak was a goldmine, minus the part where Umbrella left her and the team to fend for themselves. Science was her life, after all.

"This outbreak is amazing . . ." she whispered to herself.

"Keep moving, Four Eyes. There's no time for collecting samples." Lupo said after looking back and seeing what she was up to.

"I'm coming!" said the virologist after she finished her work and started running to the others.

"Damn, Vector! Beltway stated upon seeing the bloodied corpses of the Spec Ops personnel. It really sucked to be any of them tonight.

A barber shop caught their attention and they walked toward it. They felt it was the perfect place to stop and take a break before deciding on their next strategy and their first one without instructions from Umbrella who still have not called them. They were very serious now.

Just then, something tremendous and familiar-looking dropped in from the shop's rooftop and landed directly in front of them, blocking their way into the shop.

It was another one of Umbrella's so-called "perfect creatures", a T-103. Wolfpack were knowledgeable of why this thing and others of its kind were trekking Raccoon City, but curiosity struck them as to why this one was here with them.

The eerie, blank look in its eyes and on its face hinted that something about the creature wasn't right and Wolfpack fearfully guessed that, like the Tyrant they visited back in the warehouse underground lab, the giant denying them entry to the barber store was also beyond anyone's control and was another subject failure on a killing rampage.

They were proven correct when the Tyrant reached out his right arm to grab any of the operatives and kill them. They all stood back from being grabbed and, now aware of what the monster desired to do, they discharged their weapons at the enemy B.O.W.

Sure, they could just run off and hide from the creature, but, like with the Hunters, the Tyrant would just follow them and wouldn't stop until it either died fighting or succeeded in killing the Wolfpack soldiers.

The Tyrant raised his fists at them and missed every attack and began going after whoever was close.

"Well, at least its just one T-103 model and there's six of us! We can take this bitch down!" Beltway shouted, trying to boost some morale to the team.

As they thought dealing with one rogue Tyrant was enough to worry about, they were in for a shock when a second Tyrant suddenly appeared near the movie theater. Seeing the commotion, the newcomer began making a run toward them to join in on the fight.

Now Wolfpack had to combat two out of control Tyrants, increasing the possibility of getting killed a tad fold and, unlike the Nemesis and the first rogue Tyrant model, these two would have to be handled simultaneously out in the open instead of in separate rooms.

"Or not!" Beltway said grimly. So much for the morale-boosting idea.

_Damn you Umbrella!_ Lupo thought angrily. She suspected that the company sent the T-103 twins after them intentionally. Wasn't dumping them in Raccoon punishment enough?

One of the creatures got into a crouching position and started sprinting at Beltway and Four Eyes at top speed like an angry rhinoceros.

They both dodged the attack in time and the T-103 ended up plowing into a city bus, not only creating a huge dent in its side, but also making it tip over on the street. What happened to that bus could have been the two soldiers had they not evaded.

The second Tyrant, the one that barely arrived, lunged for Spectre, Lupo and Vector.

Bertha wanted to help in taking down the Tyrants by utilizing the same strategy she used on the Nemesis before. As with the aforementioned creature, she shot her anti-B.O.W. drug at the Tyrants and they would feel it soon enough, only this time she doubled the dosage per target as she now wished to observe what multiple doses would to them.

Beltway planted four proximity landmines in front of himself and shot at the second Tyrant opponent to get its attention which worked because the giant turned and began making his way toward the black ops soldier to attack, unaware of Beltway's planned trap.

As the monster was nearing his target, his large feet stepped on one of the landmines. It beeped and went off in a flash, triggering the trap and causing the other three ground bombs to explode in a chain reaction. The combined detonation left high burns on the Tyrant's lower body and he collapsed on his back from loss of and dizziness from the painful event.

"In you face, sucker!" Beltway bragged. With the beast down momentarily, the other T-103 could now be dealt with.

Vector looked down at his wrist comm to see the condition of his cloaking ability. Learning that it was fully charged and ready for use again, he activated the camouflage and opened fire on the first Tyrant to confuse him and avoid bringing harm to his team.

The Tyrant searched around for Vector, but he couldn't see the U.S.S. soldier anywhere. Even though the two T-103's were created by the T-Virus just like the Nemesis, they can still be hoodwinked by invisibility as this one could not detect Vector in his current mode like other virus creatures can. Vector figured that if his ability worked on the Nemesis, then it can work on the giant twins in coats.

_Try to hurt me now, asshole!_ Vector thought sinisterly.

While planning his next attack, he found a Hydra shotgun model near a motorcycle, picked it up, opened its chamber to see if it was loaded, which it was, and got close enough, still undetected, to fire off a shot at the creature's back.

The Tyrant groaned deeply and reached out to strike his attacker, but only swiped thin air.

Vector fired again, tagging the creature's left arm.

By then, the Tyrant was already back on his feet and resumed his previous rampage against the ones who harmed him while leaving the other one to Vector.

Four Eyes ducked behind the toppled bus away from view to reload her firearm. As she did, the sound of a trash can tipping over caught her attention. She turned to the sound's direction and saw a medium-sized horde of zombies walking toward where the big battle took place. Some were Crimson Heads and some were the common, slow types.

She wanted to gun them down, but then she possessed another idea that was similar to how she helped deal with the Nemesis. The team's virologist took out a pheromone bomb, activated it and threw it at Tyrant chasing after Bertha and Spectre. Of course, before throwing the bomb, she had to warn them to evade the target first, which they did when they saw why she warned them.

The bomb landed near the creature's position and released its contents. It doused the air and the T-103, blinding him and forcing him to cough and cover his face with both hands.

Like with the Nemesis, the gigantic B.O.W. was surrounded and attacked by the crazed, vicious zombie crowd. The gas was now clouding the creatures.

However, just because Four Eyes' special grenade drew unwanted attention for the T-103 didn't exactly stop him from mowing down his opponents like they were nothing. More zombies from other sections of the city showed up and went after the mighty Tyrant.

It wasn't much, but at least it bought them all some time to concentrate on the other Tyrant who was still taking a strong beating by Vector. His cloaking allowed him to dish out just enough damage to weaken the enemy unharmed. This was also possible to accomplish quickly thanks to Bertha's drugs still within the Tyrant's system which were affecting him and his ability to fight back. The T-103's senses were starting to dull and he was seeing everything and everyone in blurs, just like the Nemesis did when he too was drugged. Because of these events, the creature was now Vector's punching bag.

It was a good thing the combination of Vector's brash strategy and Bertha's injections damaged the creature to the fullest because at that moment, Vector's wrist computer informed its wearer that the suit's camouflage energy was depleted and with that, it immediately deactivated itself, making Vector visible once again.

"Oh, crap!" he said. Now the Tyrant could see him again, but it didn't matter because the monster wasn't in the best shape to retaliate right now. The drugs had worsened him on the inside and, thanks to Vector, he felt worse on the outside too.

With the Tyrant down for the count, Wolfpack spared no expense at shooting their opponent with as much firepower as possible. They mostly targeted the B.O.W.'s head and the Tyrant groaned his final breath and collapsed on the dirty pavement. His head, face and neck doused in his own blood.

The T-103 was dead and now the group was free to focus on the other T-103 who, by now, had rid himself of the annoying zombies driven wild by Four Eyes' chemical which was already gone.

They sprayed a large hail of gunfire at the remaining Tyrant and used a couple of fragmentation grenades. Damaged, half-burnt and without backup now, the creature still continued to lash at them with an increase of hostility.

He missed some of his foes, but he did manage to knock away Bertha and Four Eyes. The two women soldiers slammed against one of the metal barricades surrounding the combatants. No serious harm was bestowed on them.

With his suit's stealth power unavailable and taking long to recharge due to extensive use, Vector was going to have to resort to helping his teammates finish the fight without his ability, not that he badly needed it at the moment since they were all cooperating against one Tyrant now. At least he (the aforementioned creature) had no high-tech weapons or equipment to use against Wolfpack.

Not achieving anything serious with hand attacks, the T-103 spotted a worn-down Volkswagen vehicle and ran toward it. He hoisted the car above his head with outrageous strength and threw it at the U.S.S. soldiers.

"Move it!" Spectre screamed and he and everyone else narrowly evaded being struck by the heavy vehicle.

While he escaped serious injury and/or death, Spectre's gun was knocked out of his hands during the attempt. Lucky for him, it wasn't destroyed and he picked it back up and resumed his duty.

Fixing another batch of the neutralizer formula, Bertha reloaded her hypo gun and shot four injections at the Tyrant.

Eventually during the fight, the Tyrant was beginning to feel the sickening, negative effects of Bertha's anti-virus/anti-B.O.W. drug. Like the deceased Tyrant, he too showed signs of dizziness, slowness, aches and pains. Being injected with an overdose of the drug was too much for him to take.

The creature grew physically weak and, seconds away from death, he made one final killing attempt against his enemies by grabbing Vector by the neck with both hands and throttled and strangled him. Despite his health decline, the Tyrant's hands were still powerful enough to crush a bowling ball like a coconut.

"Get . . . this crazy bastard . . . off me!" Vector demanded, struggling to breathe.

While the others worked together to free Vector, the trapped soldier yanked out his sidearm, aimed it at the Tyrant's damaged head and pulled the trigger on his gun. Only two bullets were used and the gun was now empty.

He switched to his knife and viciously stabbed the Tyrant's large hands wrapped around his throat. The thick, leather gloves the monster wore were hard to penetrate with a knife, but Vector kept repeating his actions until the Tyrant finally released him and fell to the ground, both opponents breathing heavily.

The Tyrant struggled to get up again, but Wolfpack prevented that by shooting him endlessly until he was dead for sure.

"Sweet dreams, you horse's ass." said Beltway and Vector kicked the B.O.W. in the head as payback for choking him.

With the two T-103 creatures now dead, Wolfpack were free to enter the barber shop and once inside, they let their weapons fall to the floor and looked around for some seating arrangements.

Vector, feeling exhausted from the fight and from nearly getting choked to death, fell to one knee. He felt like he needed a week's worth of sleep and the others felt the same.

Noticing this, Four Eyes approached him and asked if he was alright and placed her right hand on his shoulder much to Vector's distaste.

"Get your hands off me!" he said irritatingly and the virologist did so with a small look in her eyes that said _Have it your way._

After a minute of silence in the store, Spectre, after seeing how worn out his comrades appeared to be, decided to make contact with Command himself.

"Command . . . respond!" he said. He got no response.

Everybody else tried their own comm links and got the same result as Spectre.

"No answer?" Lupo asked everyone after her attempt failed too.

"Does it look like they're answering!? They fucking ditched us!" Beltway said and kicked a chair aside in anger.

"He's right." Spectre stated, backing Beltway up. "Don't you see? We're alone now."

Hearing that upsetting, yet true statement, Lupo walked to a barricaded window and stared out into the city streets and destruction they were sheltered from and started doing some thinking. There were two possibilities she thought as to why Umbrella didn't respond to them: either there was a communications problem with their radio comm channels or they did something to cause Umbrella to abandon them. She had a strong feeling that the second option was the main reason. After all, they did lose the survivor they were supposed to terminate back at the tanker truck accident and Command admitted it on their last transmission with them and told them they were to stay put in town until they sought out the survivor and finished him/her off.

Four Eyes approached Lupo and asked "So, what do we do now?" She had a feeling of what Lupo's answer was going to be and felt a singe of regret for asking.

"Looks like we've got a long night ahead of us." Lupo answered her grimly as she saw a bigger zombie group moving toward the barber shop with drooling mouths and their ghostly moaning floating through the air.

From a far distance, a car alarm blared endlessly and a wire pole nearby buzzed and exploded before toppling over.

With Umbrella HQ ignoring their calls, Delta Team was going to have to survive the horrors of the city of the dead on their own. They were supposed to be a fearless and deadly unit, but even they had their limits at times like this. Everyone does at some point.

They were getting the dreaded idea that tonight was going to be their final stand against Umbrella's mess.

The zombies made it to the building and began clawing at the barricades and doors, desperate to get the food inside. Although they were physically inferior to humans, especially combat-trained people, together they were bound to succeed in breaching the store sooner or later and the barricades couldn't hold them out forever.

The Wolfpack troops couldn't stay inside and wait for a rescue that was probably never going to happen tonight or any other night and they decided that the time to fight back while they can was now or never.

They loaded their weapons, grouped together, silently nodded to each other as a way of saying they were all ready and broke out of the abandoned barber shop and began their brave, vicious assault on the walking dead. At least they managed to stock up on plenty of ammunition before and after their battle with the Tyrants.

Several zombies were killed and more took their place and attacked the U.S.S. group. Sure, it was only a few zombies at first, but as time passed and bodies dropped, the battle went from bad to worse for Wolfpack as the number of hostile B.O.W.s increased.

Half an hour later as the zombie swarms kept coming, Hunters, Cerberus dogs, Crimson Heads, crows and Lickers soon joined in. It was now a real monster fest for Delta Team and it was becoming too much for any of them to handle. They've managed to kill just about 1000 B.O.W.s, most of them zombies.

The team kept making contact with U.S.S. Command during the struggle to survive, hoping to get an answer.

"Command, this is Wolfpack! We are pinned down and destroying massive amounts of your precious B.O.W.s! It is in your best interest to evacuate us immediately!" Lupo said into her radio. She shot and killed three hungry dogs that were chasing her.

No response.

Beltway barely ducked from a swipe from a Licker and killed it with his heavy machine gun.

"Command, you need to evacuate us ASAP! Get us out of here! ARGGH! FUCK YOU!" he shouted, the latter comment being directed toward a pair of Hunters that closed in on him. He tossed a frag grenade at them and it exploded, killing the creatures and causing a wrecked taxi cab near them to flip backward.

There was still no response from their boss. They didn't need to die to go to hell because they were already there and their CO was the devil who had damned them to this horrid place. They felt as if they had made a deal they should not have made and they were now paying dearly for it.

Bertha tripped a Crimson Head zombie and stomped on its face and head before being grappled by another one. It almost bit her but she held it back with her left arm and tried to push it away in order to get a clear shot with her gun.

"Command, if you're even listening, we really need extraction immediately!" Lupo begged. The members were in grave turmoil and if they stayed in the city longer than expected, they would be overpowered and killed by the virus creatures at any time.

* * *

**At Umbrella Headquarters . . .**

* * *

The workers and scientists in one of Umbrella's well-hidden facilities watched as many monitor footage of Raccoon as possible. They were surprised at just how much destruction the T-Virus spill had done to Raccoon City. If word got out that Umbrella Inc did this, they would be completely screwed big time!

The person that fed instructions to Wolfpack the entire time during their mission, a man in his late 40's, walked up to a screen that was showing live footage of Delta Team's exhausting battle against the city's B.O.W.s. For a moment, he said nothing to the worker operating the screen and simply sipped a hot cup of spearmint-flavored tea he held in his left hand calmly while watching the people on the screen fight off every monster they saw. He felt no pity for Wolfpack as they struggled to withstand the B.O.W.s.

Every call he got from Wolfpack asking for evacuation was ignored as he ordered his employees not to answer them at all. He was determined to punish them all for failing their tasks when under contract with them. He was a strict type of person who had a low tolerance for failure and anybody who did not wield positive results during an Umbrella mission was dead to him.

But then, after seeing his unit's strong will to survive against the creature swarms for some time, he gave it some thought and eventually changed his mind about ditching the Wolfpack unit. He was willing to give them another chance at earning their freedom. But they would have to do something very important in return. This was a first as he would normally never do something like this.

* * *

**Back in Raccoon City . . .**

* * *

At last, they got a response from their commander.

"Delta Team come in, over." said the sinister-sounding voice of their boss.

"Delta Team reporting!" said Lupo, happy to finally hear from Umbrella yet simultaneously irritated at them for taking their sweet time to say something to the team while they worked to keep from being dinner for the monsters.

"We've been impressed by your actions." said Command.

"I don't give a shit about . . .!" Lupo began to say before Command interrupted her. The fight against the endless swarms of the undead were taking a toll on her and the unit members.

"Management feels we were a bit too quick to judge your unit, perhaps a little harsh. Therefore, we have reluctantly agreed to your request for extraction."

Relieved to hear those words, Lupo wanted to say "Well, it's about damn time!", but Command stopped her.

"However, to carry out your wish, you will need to deal with the spies that have infiltrated our lab facility. Your new objective is to get to the facility, identify the spies and kill them. Transmitting coordinates."

Now Wolfpack's anger toward the company skyrocketed. All this zombie-killing business was becoming a great burden for them. Even highly-trained killers like them couldn't last forever in this desolate deathtrap. Plus, they were being told to return to the very place where the city's doom began.

"You need to give us answers! Why did you . . .?"

"Terminating transmission. Command out." the team's CO said and ended the transmission, leaving Wolfpack alone again. They were furious with Umbrella for ditching them and postponing their ride out of Raccoon City again in exchange for another clean-up chore. But in spite of all that, they still agreed to accept their new assignment if it will allow them to leave in peace.

"Did Command just tell us to go fuck ourselves?" Vector questioned.

"Apparently so. Umbrella owes us . . . big time for this." Spectre uttered as he blasted a zombie's head off and shoved the body away to buy some time to flee from extra zombies.

Vector saw an empty nutrition store and advised the team to seek refuge there and they followed him. A couple of locks and chains were placed on the entrance doors to prevent the creatures from following them inside. The monsters banged on the doors, trying to break in and the soldiers, now safe from the hordes, took another short break before heading out on their "final mission".

A few bumps and turns, overturned and destroyed vehicles and more slaughtered bodies, killed by Wolfpack or already killed by other means. What a night they've been having.

They rounded a corner and suddenly, they saw two non-infected men exiting a ruined music store, falling to the ground. They appeared to be in their mid or late twenties and both were wearing R.P.D. uniforms. They were officers for the city's police force, the very faction Wolfpack were ordered to target and annihilate.

The troops did nothing but stand and observe as the two cops got up, turned around with their handgun raised and fired several shots at a trio of Crimson Head zombies, killing two of them with headshots while the third and last creature absorbed many shots to the chest before succumbing to its wounds.

As soon as that ordeal was over with, the two survivors noticed Wolfpack and were about to ask them for help, but the Umbrella squad members only glared at them with wicked stares and aimed their guns at the officers.

Sensing Wolfpack's upcoming intentions, the police duo immediately bolted away from the scene and ran to an alleyway next to the same shop they came out of, barely missing a bullet fired by Lupo.

"After them!" the Wolfpack leader screamed and she and the group gave chase. Because the people they were chasing were cops, the Wolfpack members assumed that they, the officers, were the ones U.S.S. Command informed them of back at the police station. But they were unaware that their new targets were not the same survivors who escaped the tanker collision and explosion from before and right now, they didn't seem to care to think about that.

Despite their anguish at their employers for leaving them behind and work further for their wish to exit the city, they still had to complete their task of killing R.P.D. employees. They hoped this would convince Umbrella HQ to send back the evac helicopter sooner.

Wolfpack pursued their targets through the alleyway and across the streets. Those two sure were fast, but not for long considering that it was six against two. The team split up into three groups of two in hopes of catching the policemen better this way than as one group.

Lupo and Beltway traveled together and managed to get ahead to where the fleeing officers were heading.

"Beltway, cut them off!" said Lupo.

"On it, Lupo." Beltway said and separated from her. He stopped near a dumpster, knelt down and planted a proximity mine on the side of the dumpster and activated its laser trigger that would cause the mine to explode if anyone or anything touched it.

Beltway chuckled evilly after setting his trap. "Now to wait for the boom . . ." he said to himself.

Spectre scaled up a side ladder of a building and was now standing on the rooftop and Lupo saw him during her run.

"Spectre, take them out!" she ordered.

Spectre spotted the officers dashing through the barren street below with his thermal vision, he also saw Lupo chasing them. Sprinting across the roof, Spectre aimed his rifle and began firing at the wanted men in short, controlled bursts, missing a few times, but after finding a good spot to shoot from, he stopped, aimed with careful timing and fired again. He hit one of the officers who quickly went down upon impact with the bullet.

He was still alive, but he was now bleeding from his side. While his partner survived any shooting injuries, he died when he unknowingly ran across the laser of Beltway's mine and that produced a massive explosion. Blood and body parts were scoured everywhere. The effects of the explosion caused a few nearby vehicles to initiate their anti-theft alarms.

_Man, I never get tired of that!_ Beltway thought after seeing what his bomb trap did to the unlucky cop.

As the wounded officer slowly stood back up, he saw Bertha running at him with her machete gripped in her hands, poised to strike him down.

Bertha swung her machete at the survivor and the man quickly evaded her attack and tripped and fell again and she wounded up hacking her weapon into a car next to them.

The cop was up and on the move and Bertha attempted another machete attack, but her machete was stuck on the car's side where she missed her target. She swore in German and struggled to free her blade from the vehicle. By the time she did, the officer was already halfway down another alley. He was clutching at the spot where Spectre had shot him moments ago.

The other Wolfpack soldiers fired at the victim, missed and followed him.

Pretty soon, they were inside an dark, underground parking lot where the officer supposedly ran to. How did they know he was there? He left a trail of blood on the lot's ground.

The team activated the flashlights on their weapons and began to search the darkened area for the missing man.

"If he keeps bleeding, he's going to attract the entire neighborhood." Vector commented after seeing the blood trail.

"Quiet . . . I hear him." Lupo said when she heard movement coming from the lot.

She focused her flashlight further down the parking lot and found something alive. What she found was a zombie feasting on a corpse. It wasn't the cop as she and the team hoped, it was just another civilian who was now zombie chow.

The zombie was not alone though as more zombies were seen eating other dead bodies.

The creatures stopped their meals and spotted Wolfpack and began walking to them.

"Oh, you heard something alright!" Vector stated sarcastically as the unit immediately engaged the zombies.

During the fight, Lupo noticed movement from the corner of her eye and she turned and saw the same officer they were looking for quickly dash from the site.

"I see the cop! After him!" she yelled and the group left, ignoring whatever zombies they didn't kill.

They kept on the wounded officer's trail (his blood trail, that is) as their victim unintentionally led them out of the lot and back onto the littered streets near an intersection filled with discarded cars, junk, abandoned stores and a STAGLA gas station where they was him running and falling to the ground.

He tried to resume his escape, but he was already too physically weakened by the chase and from blood loss to continue. By then, Wolfpack had already caught up with him, ready to end him right there.

As the team prepared to murder the downed policeman, they soon discovered from the far end of their position six people emerging from a store that looked half-demolished. Like Wolfpack, this other group consisted of three men and three women and all were armed with military-style weapons.

The people they were glancing at looked like civilians or a militia group to Delta Team. Some of those people had equipment similar to Wolfpack's own gear.

Upon seeing Wolfpack, the unknown militia group stopped in their tracks and aimed their weapons at the Umbrella operatives. One of their own, a man with black hair and a red scarf around his neck, walked ahead of the others and over to Wolfpack with his assault rifle trained on them.

The U.S.S. members guessed that this man was the leader of the new group.

While no one was looking, Vector activated his invisibility and began to sneak over to the other group undetected by them or his allies. Spectre noticed what Vector was up to and remained silent, choosing to allow Vector's actions to speak for them.

"Hey! This is a quarantine zone! Identify yourselves!" the man with the red scarf demanded.

It was during this moment that Vector cocked his assault rifle and aimed it at the side of the man's head. The enemy leader immediately halted his advancement when he heard the noise.

"Don't take another step." Vector warned him, deactivating his stealth to further express his seriousness. The man simply looked at the Wolfpack soldier with surprise and said nothing to him.

With Vector holding the opposing person at bay, Lupo took this opportunity to execute the injured R.P.D. officer with a single gunshot to the back of his head. The Wolfpack team smiled with glee while their new rivals glared in horror.

The task of eliminating the recently-murdered target and his previous partner was finished, but soon, Wolfpack would be facing a new threat and it was standing right in front of them.

Pleased at finally killing the cop, Vector was about to finish off the unnamed person when his gun was suddenly slapped away by said person. The gun went off when that happened and the man sweep-kicked Vector to the ground and proceeded to shoot him with his rifle, but Vector kicked the foe's weapon away and he got up and both men got into a brief fight with each other.

They exchanged a few kicks and punches and it ended when Vector knocked the enemy combatant away with a spinning roundhouse kick and re-activated his camouflage and regrouped with Wolfpack.

With the deceased police officers now wiped from existence, Wolfpack decided to focus on getting rid of their new adversaries.

"Kill them all!" Lupo said and she, Bertha, Spectre, Four Eyes, Beltway and Vector (while the latter was still unseen) raised their firearms at the other group and started shooting.

Seeing this, the group of non-Umbrella soldiers ran for cover behind the street vehicles and returned fire on Wolfpack.

* * *

**Wolfpack have finally met Echo Six and both teams are now about to face each other. Now it's time to shed some light on Echo Six's side prior to their ill-fated meeting with Wolfpack.**

**One thing: because Party Girl's abilities match Spectre's in the ORC game, here in this story, she'll be wearing and using a pair of goggles that function just like Spectre's mask. It didn't make sense that she was able to use multiple vision modes without vision-enabled equipment like some kind of freaking magician or something. Maybe the game's creators forgot to give her goggles or a vision mask during the game's development stages.**

* * *

A helicopter belonging to the U.S. government-backed Spec Ops flew above Raccoon City. Other than the pilot flying the chopper, inside were six soldiers consisting of three men and three women, each armed and ready for the job in which they were sent to do. Their names were Sienna Fowler, Crispin Jettingham, Marissa Ronson, Erez Morris, Lawrence Kimbala and Caroline Floyd.

Like a certain group from Umbrella (whom they were yet to cross paths with), when performing their jobs, these people always went by assigned codenames such as Party Girl(Fowler), Dee-Ay(Jettingham), Tweed(Ronson), Harley(Morris), Shona(Kimbala) and Willow(Floyd) and each person of this unit carried a special set of skills needed to carry out their reasons for being in the city of death and followed orders from someone known to them as "Spec Ops Command". They also possessed special abilities that were similar to what the Wolfpack members had which should prove useful during their stay in Raccoon City.

All of them were armed to the teeth. Each carried flashbang and fragmentation grenades, handguns, combat knives, and large firearms. Tweed had a Light Machine Gun which, despite the name, was quite heavy, Dee-Ay carried an original assault rifle with an ACOC sight attached, Harley was equipped with an advanced Submachine Gun, Shona was armed with a SPAS-12 Combat Shotgun, Party Girl used a semi-auto sniper rifle called an "Arbiter"(how ironic), and Willow held an assault rifle that differed from Dee-Ay's weapon called a "Hammer".

The mission of Echo Six was to find and rescue survivors, learn who or what was responsible for the town's crisis and get out with their lives intact. Little did they know that soldiers from Umbrella were already deployed in the city mopping up the mess, but they would meet them soon enough.

The helicopter stopped in mid-air above an empty street, and the pilot told the Echo Six unit that this was their stop and the members each got up from their seats, grabbed some repel cable lines and prepared to drop.

With their cords connected to both sides of the helicopter, the six troops began to lower themselves down. After landing safely on the ground, the repel cables they used detached from the chopper and the pilot wished them luck and started flying away in the nightly distance, leaving the six people on their own and they started scouting around to ensure that the coast was clear, which it was.

Suddenly, they all got an incoming call in their radio communicators from their commanding officer.

"Echo Six, report!" said Spec Ops Command. Each member of the team spoke one at a time.

"Dee-Ay: Assault. Reporting."

"Harley: Medic. Reporting.

"Shona: Field Scientist. Reporting."

"Tweed: Demolitions. Reporting."

"Willow: Recon. Reporting."

"Party Girl: Surveillance. Reporting."

With introductions out of the way, Dee-Ay, who was also the team leader, spoke again.

"Command, Echo Six reporting in. Requesting objective.

"Reports from Raccoon City in the past 36 hours have been mixed at best. No one is sure what to believe anymore. Make contact with local authorities and return an accurate situation report. Get to the Raccoon City Police Department and find out what happened here." he ordered.

"Roger that, Command. Echo Six moving out." Dee-Ay said and the team started their advancement into the depths of the virus-ridden territory.

"I've never seen a hot zone this quiet." Dee-Ay said to himself. He was right. Except for cackling fires and a sparking electric fuse box on a telephone pole, all was eerily silent. Everything was like hell on earth. What was once a great community had now really gone downhill big time. They wondered just what kind of caused so much chaos.

"What the hell happened here?!" Willow asked.

"Your guess is as good as any of ours." said Shona.

Pretty soon, they came across another alleyway where they spotted shadows of human figures standing just on the other side of the alley's corner.

"We have a visual on civilians, but something doesn't look right with them." Willow reported to Spec Ops command as they carefully approached the first local closest to them.

It was a woman and, as Willow stated, the unidentified civilian didn't look well. She looked as if she were stricken down by some kind of serious illness. The flesh on her arms and on the back of her neck looked rotten and ghoulish.

Echo Six were about to learn tonight that the entire town was struck hard by something much worse than just a simple sickness.

Dee-Ay got close to the sickly woman and was about to tell her what they were here to do, but then the woman turned around, frightening all six soldiers with her grotesque-looking face and body, and suddenly grappled onto the Echo Six leader and tried to bite him with her rotting and disgusting teeth.

The "sick" woman was a hungry and hostile T-Virus zombie.

"What the hell?!" Dee-Ay shouted and he pushed the infected woman away and knocked her into a brick wall corner.

Harley quickly came to Dee-Ay's aid and killed the zombie with a single gunshot to the head and the creature fell back and landed on a pile of long-forgotten, discarded trash bags.

"Just what the bloody hell is wrong with them?" Tweed questioned, staring vaguely at the dead zombie whom they actually mistook for an actual survivor and turned her shocked gaze on others that looked vaguely similar to the one they killed. All of them has rotting, peeling skin, dead-like and stared at Echo Six with hungry mouths and eyes that told Echo Six and anyone else alive out there that they were not themselves.

"They're . . . they're not people anymore." Willow said faintly. She was just as surprised and terrified at the situation as everyone else. Their mission was going to be unlike anything they've ever experienced in their lives.

Command contacted them upon learning what went on.

"Echo Six. You are authorized to use force on any hostiles."

Just when that was mentioned, the other zombies marched throughout the alley and the Echo Six group was given no choice but to kill them all.

_Poor folks._ Dee-Ay thought.

It took less than a minute and a half for them to slay the zombies before pressing onward, all of them feeling some trauma from what they just saw and what they were doing. That was the cost of joining a military unit.

They passed by another alley, this one filled with rock music promotion posters on the walls, and made it to another littered street and encountered more zombies.

Echo Six battled the creatures and as they did, a trio of Cerberus dogs burst from behind a fence and joined the zombies. All three animals stared at the team with hungry eyes that matched the zombies' and their jaws were open and drooling and they growled fiercely. Echo Six were horrified to see that the epidemic that infected and mutated the town's citizens effected dogs and possibly other animals too. What a nightmare.

The dogs charged for the soldiers and two of them were shot and killed instantly while the third one evaded all gunfire and ran for Harley, pouncing and knocking him to the ground with mighty force.

"Holy crap!" the man shouted as the undead canine barked and growled while attempting to bite and kill its target.

Shona was about to kill the hostile animal, but Harley insisted that he could handle it by himself which he did when he grabbed the dog's throat with one hand, unsheathed his knife with his other hand and plunged it into the side of the dog's neck. The undead animal yelped as blood oozed from its new wound and Harley repeated his act three to five times until the dog was dead. He shoved the body off of his person and stood back up, rubbing his back from the fall.

"Bad dog!" he yelled to the corpse and picked up where he left off with the invading zombies.

A Crimson Head zombie dressed in police clothing grappled Tweed from behind and she knocked it back with an elbow jab and turned around to deal with her attacker. Its appearance gave her a jolt inside at first.

_Sorry about this, officer._ she thought before going for a headshot with her handgun rather than her LMG, saving the latter for bigger problems. It took more than one shot to do the job due to the thickness of the creature's head and that surprised her.

When the zombies were all taken care of, Echo Six moved out again.

Another zombie dog saw Echo Six walking by and was disposed of after remembering how fast they were.

Two more zombie cops were discovered moving about behind a blocked fence area and they were taken down also.

A moment later, Echo Six came across a wooden gate that was constricted by a chain lock.

"Somebody help me open this." Party Girl said.

But before that could happen, the wooden barrier was strongly brought down by another zombie group, most of them were Crimson Heads and two originals, and they approached Echo Six with mouths agape and and reaching hands.

"Never mind." Party Girl said fearfully and go busy shooting down the zombies.

"My god, these red-heads are fast!" Shona exclaimed.

After the zombies were dead, Echo Six started hearing gunfire from the opposite side of the alley and they immediately ran toward it. They weren't sure if the shooters were from Spec Ops or not and there was only one way to find out.

They reached a street area where a radio station building called "R.C. Radio was seen and found it to be occupied by soldiers dressed in black, military clothing and wearing black-colored masks. They were shooting at some zombies near the building. So far, they were the first group of living people Echo Six have seen since coming here. However, that still didn't mean they were friendly, they could be hostile due to their appearance. Nobody from the Spec Ops wore uniforms like that.

When those same people spotted Echo Six, some of them turned their gunfire from the creatures and on them, forcing Echo Six to find cover. The shooters were definitely enemies.

"We're under enemy fire! Defensive positions!" Dee-Ay said into his earpiece.

"Roger, Echo Six. Engage and neutralize those hostiles, but don't get bogged down." Command said and the unit divided time between shooting the zombies that discovered them and the enemy soldiers in and on top of the radio station.

Party Girl used her sniper rifle to pick off a couple of soldiers. before being shot at by an enemy sniper of their own. Luckily, that bullet only hit her gun at the tip and didn't do any harm to her.

Dee-Ay spent the clip in his assault rifle, loaded in a fresh one and prepared to fire again when he got an idea and shared it with the team. Willow joined him as the second half of his plan involved her.

Dee-Ay activated a special ability of his that granted him immunity to all physical damage for a short amount of time. With this ability in use, he ran out into the open, allowing zombies and enemy troops to see him and both sides attacked.

He was unharmed by all gunfire from the soldiers as well as bites and scratches from the undead. The first part of his plan was to use himself as a distraction so that his squadmates may join in the fight against their adversaries without being attacked, by the soldiers anyway.

With the U.S.S. distracted by the Echo Six leader, Willow played her part of Dee-Ay's plan by using an ability of hers called "Mimicry". It would allow her to disguise herself as anyone of her choosing and with this, she took on the form of a U.S.S. soldier. None of the hostiles saw this.

Willow asked the others except Dee-Ay to stay put until she gave the signal and they agreed and continued firing at the Umbrella troops and zombies while she made her way into another section of the alley and sprinted toward the radio station unnoticed by any U.S.S. personnel and was now among them.

She was to go undercover as one of the enemy soldiers and destroy them from the inside.

Willow was now standing inside the first floor of the building.

One soldier turned around and saw Willow, still disguised. Completely fooled by her deception, the operative ordered her to go to the back of the building and deliver machine gun ammunition for the troops above who were starting to run low and were in dire need of it.

Sticking to her cover and without speaking to ensure her true form remains unknown yet, Willow agreed and did as told. She saw a few large crate boxes in a back room that contained ammo for all kinds of weapons like machine guns, handguns, assault rifles, shotguns and boxes holding fragmentation grenades, landmines, flashbangs, landmines, smoke and poison gas grenades, all packaged separately and in order. This place was a goldmine for gun enthusiasts and people trying to remain alive in town.

All the gunfire and grenade explosions were producing so much noise, it was almost impossible to hear anyone talk or scream, making it the perfect opportunity for Willow to commence what she came to do.

Taking a few extra clips for herself, Willow walked back to the main room, raised her gun and killed the unsuspecting troops in the same area. Lucky for Willow, the soldiers above didn't hear the commotion she caused.

She reloaded her weapon and headed for the stairs that would take her to the roof.

The rooftop soldiers were still heavily focused on attacking Echo Six and Dee-Ay who was now taking cover behind a dumpster in another alley since his ability had worn off now. The zombie mob had been reduced by then.

None of them realized Willow was there and they too were gunned down by the Echo Six member. Now it was just her, her teammates and a few leftover zombies on the street.

"The coast is clear up here, everyone. Finish off any remaining monsters down there and meet me inside." she said through her headset.

"Affirmative." Shona said and they killed the last of the zombies and were reunited soon after.

They started to inspect the bodies of the soldiers and saw their U.S.S. patches and symbols and learned that they were from the Umbrella corporation.

The Echo Six party have heard about Umbrella, but again, they were unaware that that company caused the unforgivable horrors of tonight. They also knew that Umbrella was Raccoon City's main source for purchasing medical supplies. How they developed the substance that brought forth the town's creatures would be revealed to them eventually.

Echo Six conducted a search around the radio station for more clues and all they found were more ammunition crates and additional weapons that belonged to the U.S.S. when they occupied the place prior to their deaths just now, other things that used to belong to whoever was once employed here and two boxes of flares which were all ready to be used at a moment's pace.

They found a sealed electronic door that required a black key card to open. Shona found one and used it to unlock the door.

Another U.S.S. soldier was discovered hiding inside the new room and was killed instantly when he tried to make a move.

The group searched the room for booby traps but found nothing.

A large, control panel was seen in the back of the room and Harley inspected it. The panel had plenty of buttons and switches and two built-in computer monitors that said "TOWER LIGHTS READY FOR ACTIVATION."

"Guys, I think we may need to call in reinforcements. I'm no Einstein on electronics, but I think we can use this thing here to power up the lights on that antenna thing above our heads to signal for backup." he said.

The others in Echo Six thought it was a good idea and Harley glanced at the two screens on the panel and followed their instructions on activating the tower lights.

It worked, but that caused the lights on the tower, along with every other light in the entire radio station and several street lights outside to suddenly black out, leaving Echo Six stranded in darkness.

"Whoops! My bad, guys." Harley said, feeling embarrassed for what happened.

"Don't be. That wasn't your fault. It was bound to happen sometime." Dee-Ay assured him.

The team quickly switched on the flashlights built in their weapons and used them to navigate themselves in the darkened building except Party Girl who used her goggles' night vision mode despite her having a flashlight on her gun too.

With the lights out, the group had to find an alternative method of signaling for reinforcements. They could have used their radios to summon them if not for the fact that their channels were different from all other Spec Ops operatives.

Moans were heard from outside and the Echo Six troops knew what that meant.

They aimed their lights outside and spotted another zombie mob making their way to the radio station. Refusing to let the blackout get the better of them, the members immediately started shooting at the creatures.

Tweed remembered the boxes of flares from before and got an idea.

"We still have the flares! I believe we can use them to signal for reinforcements!" she shouted over the loud gunfire.

"Excellent thinking, Tweed!" Dee-Ay said and asked her to rush to the rooftop and launch the flares from there, volunteering to keep the zombies at bay. Tweed agreed and asked for someone to accompany her and Party Girl and Shona accepted and Tweed picked up one box of flares as they moved out together. Harley and Willow chose to remain with Dee-Ay to help against the B.O.W.s.

Shona, Tweed and Party Girl made it to the roof and came across the same U.S.S. soldiers they killed earlier who were now reanimated as zombies and killed them, although that was challenging due to their bullet-resistant body armor and helmets.

Tweed placed down the box and started giving out some flares to her teammates and all three fiddled with their flares until one of them got a spark on theirs.

The lit flare was strongly hurled up in the air and it quickly launched itself into the sky and exploded, bring about a bright, blue glow to illuminate the entire surrounding area.

"That should do the trick. Now what?" Party Girl said and asked.

"We stand our ground and wait for the reinforcements to arrive." Shona answered.

Now that they've completed their job, the ones below regrouped with the people above and each person struggled to help in holding off the station until the aforementioned backup showed up and with the additional weapons and ammo in the building, that should not pose a problem for Echo Six.

For the next several minutes, the zombies kept coming and refused to stop. Some slow and some Crimson Heads. All were mowed down.

Party Girl saw a red drum barrel on her far left and struggled to push it to the street to use as a weapon and not just for squishing zombies. With some help from Dee-Ay and Shona, the heavy barrel was tossed off the roof and it crashed into the street below where sixteen more zombies were seen trying to gain access to the team's location.

Party Girl fired a single shot at the barrel with her rifle and it exploded in a flash, claiming the zombified locals around it. Some were still walking while on fire before finally dropping dead.

"Now that's what I call a real barbecue." she said. Saying that now made her hungry for some barbecue food, but that was going to have to wait for a long time.

Another Crimson Head zombie chased after Tweed and she handled the creature by grappling and twisting one of it arms. Then she shoved a frag grenade in its messy mouth and kicked it away toward its own kind. Before the red zombie could turn around, the grenade exploded and killed the booby-trapped Crimson Head and the zombies nearby.

"That was fucking badass!" Harley cheered after seeing what the British woman did.

Uh, thanks!" Tweed said.

The relenting carnage lasted for seven minutes. Blood was spilled, used bullets littered the ground and the Echo Six members were showing signs of fatigue and looked sweaty and dirty from all the fighting and killing.

Soon, gunfire from elsewhere was heard, followed by zombie shrieks and then voices that sounded human.

Party Girl and Harley looked around and saw armed soldiers emerging from a garage door that had "HELP" messily written on its front with smears of blood. They were dressed in gray and white, military uniforms and they were shooting at the zombies which had now turned their attention on them instead of Echo Six. These people were from the same faction Echo Six were employed with.

"It's our reinforcements! They're here!" Party Girl said happily.

"Well, it's about damn time they got here! My hands are starting to chafe from all this shooting." Harley complained. No one blamed him, they all felt it too.

The team got down to the street to meet up with the Spec Ops people and they were told to keep moving into the garage structure they came from while they, the Spec Ops, handled the remaining zombies.

After getting inside, the safe house's door was closed shut by one of the soldiers and Echo Six were the only ones inside now and in the clear.

Gunfire was still audible from outside.

"Okay, first we take a little break here and after that, we proceed to the police station. Sound good?" Dee-Ay suggested. He dropped his gun and sat down on a foldable chair.

"Fine by us, love." Tweed said. Everyone had put down their weapons and either sat on chairs and boxes or laid down on some sleeping bags that were already placed out.

Harley removed his gloves and found a full water canteen which he used to douse his sore hands.

_Ah, that's the stuff!_ He thought. He saw some extra canteens behind him and offered them out to the others and they quickly downed them until all were empty. Fighting B.O.W.s sure was thirsty work.

The short break concluded and the shooting and yelling outside quieted down. Echo Six guessed that the soldiers had gone to find and kill more monsters. They re-armed themselves and exited the safe area through a small door.

After blasting their way through some more undead, they soon found themselves standing just outside of the Raccoon City police station.

"There it is!" Willow exclaimed. The building looked like an abandoned warehouse. Now they had to enter the station and scout for any living officers or civilians inside.

As the operatives headed toward the building, they suddenly heard a noise and turned to confront whatever made it with their weapons aimed and ready.

From a distance, they saw someone leap from a high ledge, land on the ground below and run frantically.

It was a Caucasian woman. She had brunette hair in a bob-cut style and she wore a blue tube top shirt, a black mini-skirt with a small white jacket tied around her waist and had brown tactical boots. The woman survivor was armed with only a Beretta 92F handgun and a combat knife which she kept in a sheath attached to a bandoleer-modeled stash she wore on her upper body.

"Who's the chick?" Harley asked. Nobody answered because, frankly, they didn't know either. They wondered who or what she was running from.

All of a sudden, they heard and saw a city bus, turned on its side, sliding toward the unknown survivor.

She turned her head, saw the incoming hazard and picked up the pace.

Echo Six could only stare as the woman sprinted toward a corner and they assumed she had trapped herself and was done for until she ran on top of a car and performed a wall-running acrobatic feat that saved her from being fatally crushed as the bus slid and rammed into the same car she just jumped from and it turned over and landed on its wheels. At least it was back onto its normal position.

The woman landed on the ground, rolling over, and got up and brushed dirt off her person.

She and the Echo Six soldiers looked through the bus' shattered windows and Echo Six learned the cause of what transpired.

A giant, man-like B.O.W. was making its way toward the survivor and soldiers. It had a messed-up face with no lips or nose, one eye that was stitched up, tube-like veins showing on its upper body and it donned a large, black trench coat and black boots. What made the new monster even more terrifying and dangerous, other than its height and strength was that it was carrying a rocket launcher in one hand and a large gatling gun in the other hand.

This creature knew how to use weapons!

"What the fuck is that thing and what's it doing with a rocket launcher and a chaingun!?" Harley questioned, stunned by the monster's grotesque, abnormal appearance and weaponry.

The woman turned to look at Echo Six.

"Run!" she said to the team who showed confusion to what the giant creature was or what it wanted.

"S.T.A.R.S!" it growled in a low, vicious voice. Echo Six were surprised even further that the ugly thing was capable was speech. What they were all dealing with was a Tyrant-class B.O.W. known to its creators as "Nemesis T-Type" or just "Nemesis".

Putting the police station objective aside, Echo Six decided to help the survivor against the new enemy.

"We'd better get out of his range, first!" Willow said and they followed the survivor who was now sprinting to the other side of the police building.

As they all ran, more zombies made themselves known from the side of a next-door building and Echo Six were about to kill them when the woman spoke up.

"Just shoot through them! We can't slow down!" she said, carefully dodging the zombies.

The beast followed them wherever they went, shoving aside and killing any zombie that stood in his way.

Making it to the other side of the alley and back on another street, Echo Six and the woman found themselves trapped between a wall of discarded junk and cars and the armed Nemesis monster that was still after them.

"Looks like we're going to have to deal with the big guy!" said Party Girl.

With nowhere else to go for now, they all began firing their respective weapons at the Nemesis.

The monster raised his gun with one hand and its barrels began rotating, leading the people to suddenly realize was was about to go down right now.

"Oh, shit! Move!" Dee-Ay shouted and they quickly scattered in various directions as the creature's gun spit out various bullets the size of adult human fingers everywhere per second. No one except staggering zombies were hit.

The Nemesis roared angrily from missing his intended targets and ceased fire after ten seconds of shooting and dropped his weapons. He raised his right hand and aimed it at the woman and a tentacle shot out from the palm.

The appendage entangled itself around the survivor and began dragging her toward its master like a fish caught on a hook.

She tried removing the slimy tentacle off herself and when that didn't work, she resorted to using her handgun on the abomination.

"Help me out!" she said.

Echo Six quickly shot the large foe until he gave up and released her.

Roaring furiously, the creature started dashing toward the humans, not caring who it was he harmed.

"Look out!" the woman yelled.

The creature went after the woman first and then at Echo Six themselves, starting with Dee-Ay and Shona. He missed both men and attacked with his tentacle again, but this time, Dee-Ay was the new target.

Like the woman, Dee-Ay had a tough time trying to free himself from the monster's grasp.

"Dee-Ay!" Willow shouted and everyone worked together to stop the monster.

"Oh no, you don't!" Dee-Ay stated and grabbed a flashbang grenade from his belt. He held it in his hand for a couple of seconds (what he was doing was a technique known as "cooking") and threw it at the Nemesis.

The creature was about to dodge the incoming grenade when it already detonated right in front of its face. It screamed and released Dee-Ay to handle its temporary blindness.

Everybody kept shooting to further injure the creature, but their efforts did very little at stopping the enemy for he remained active in trying to kill them.

Dee-Ay spotted another alley opening just on the creature's left, unblocked by anything. How did they not see that?

"I see an escape route we can use! Now's our chance!" he said and everyone followed him there.

The Nemesis recovered from his minor injuries and saw his victims making a run for it and followed them, forgetting about his weapons that remained unguarded on the dirty street.

"The bastards' coming!" Harley said when he turned his head and saw the approaching freak of nature pursuing them all into the alley, smacking bothersome zombies away with his massive arms.

Now they were stuck in another dead end with nowhere to go but back where they came from. But with the trench coat maniac congesting the pathway with his bulky size, that was out of the question.

"Great! Unless anyone can walk through walls, what do we do?" Tweed asked in panic.

Stressing on thinking up a way out of their current jam, the woman glared around their surroundings and noticed a way of escape.

She aimed her gun at some wooden poles and fired off some shots. This caused the poles' plank structures to creak and topple until a stairway was formed.

_Damn, what a babe!_ Harley thought, impressed by the survivor's quick thinking and actions.

"This way!" she said and they all followed her up the planks and they were now on a building's top floor.

The creature saw what they did and wanted to go after them, but one of the Echo Six soldiers foiled that plot by shooting out a few of the structure's poles and the plank stairs suddenly dismantled themselves, leaving the dangerous monstrosity trapped in the alley below with the leftover zombies.

The survivor and the military unit were safe from his wrath for now.

"C'mon! We'd better leave before that thing gets any ideas on getting up here!" Willow said and everyone walked inside the building.

They heard the Nemesis monster releasing an angry roar back in the alley from failing to catch them and was on his merry way. To both the creature and the group of people, this wasn't over by a long shot.

Minutes later, the group reached a parking lot that was littered with rotting corpses. No one was sure if they would rise and attack like all the others or if they were truly dead, but that was to wait for another time because Echo Six now had to get information from the woman survivor about the grave, hellish problems they were facing.

"That'll only slow it down. We gotta keep moving." said the survivor.

"How about you let us all know what it is we're running from?" Party girl wanted to know.

"I don't know what it is, but nothing seems to stop it." the woman began to say. "It already killed a comrade of mine right in front of me the first time I met it."

She quivered at the memory of how the monster accomplished that.

"So, who exactly are you?" Dee-Ay asked her and she looked at the team's leader and answered. "The name's Jill valentine. I used to be with S.T.A.R.S."

"Don't tell us: that creature back there is one of Umbrella's creations?" said Dee-Ay.

The woman, whose name was now known to the members of Echo Six, nodded to his statement.

"Yeah, we're not exactly Umbrella's favorite people. We've been investigating some of their more questionable activities for a while now and from what my comrade told me before his death, Umbrella sent that monster to kill all S.T.A.R.S. members in the city and, as of right now, I'm its one and only target."

At that moment, Dee-Ay spoke into his earpiece. "Command, are you getting this?"

"Yes. She's part of the R.P.D.'s Special Tactics And Rescue Service. She checks out, but you are not to share your mission objective with her." Command said and Dee-Ay silently agreed.

"Where are you headed?" Harley asked Jill.

"Out of town, you should all do the same." she answered.

"Not quite yet, love. We've civilians to rescue first." Tweed said while checking her weapon.

"She's right. We can't leave yet." Willow said next, backing up Tweed's statement.

Jill had a look of despair on her face after learning why they were here and that meant bad news for this team of operatives.

"There are no survivors. They're all dead and you guys don't look like any rescue team I've ever seen." she said.

Echo Six were stunned from hearing that, but the former S.T.A.R.S. member wasn't quite finished yet.

"Look, I can't stay, but if whoever's holding your leash cares about what happened here, I'd start with City Hall. You'll find Intel on Umbrella there. But If I were you, I'd get out of Raccoon City while it's still possible."

With that said, Jill turned around and walked to a building near them. She kicked the door open, entered and closed the door. She was on her own and so were Echo Six. once again.

They stared at one another, trying to decide if they should follow Jill or head for City Hall as she suggested. Leaving town was unacceptable for them until their job was accomplished.

"If what she said about looking for proof against Umbrella in City Hall is true, then my money's on City Hall, guys." Harley said.

Everyone agreed on going to City Hall and prepared to move out.

Just then, the bodies in the parking lot began to move, groan and rise. The team chose to kill them first before going anywhere which they proceeded to do.

As they ventured into an apartment complex, a Licker creature pounced from the ceiling, landed behind the group and hissed. Nobody panicked much because it was just one Licker and it was completely outnumbered.

"Just go. I'll catch up to you." Willow said, leaving her teammates dumbfounded that she wished to handle the creature solo, but they didn't object and ventured to the building's rooftop and Willow was on her own against the Licker.

Willow aimed her rifle weapon at the monster, but it used its long whip-like tongue to knock the gun out of her hands and she proceeded to switch to her handgun, but she didn't have time to use it when the Licker suddenly pounced for the Echo Six agent. It missed her when she skidded across a wall and made a gash in its back leg with her knife which she withdrew at the last minute.

The monster's actions knocked over a table holding a flower pot and caused the object to tip over and shatter on its exposed brain. It screeched angrily from that and this granted Willow enough time to raise her handgun and shoot at the monster until the weapon's clip dried out. The target was still alive though.

The Licker lashed its appendage at her again and Willow grabbed it with a single hand and, in a way, allowed the tongue to wrap around her. While the Licker prepared to pull her toward itself, the Native American agent turned the tables when she reversed what her foe intended to do by twirling around in the air with its tongue and yanked the Licker to her path and when both woman and monster were within close range of each other, Willow plunged her knife deeply into the Licker's chest and heart organ and the Licker squirmed, squealed and died.

Willow gathered herself and ran off to rejoin the team.

While on the move, lots of gunfire was heard not too far from their position. Either that was soldiers from their unit, from Umbrella or both.

Willow made it to the rooftop and found her teammates staring at a problem on the street below them.

About ten Spec Ops soldiers were on the ground on Echo Six's left shooting at U.S.S. soldiers on their right. To make it worse, the Umbrella guys were being supported by a familiar enemy.

It was the same B.O.W. giant that tried to kill them and Jill Valentine, the Nemesis.

Seeing the black ops troops and the Nemesis standing side by side without the latter going crazy made Echo Six realize that the creature was somehow designed to help non-infected Umbrella personnel while targeting those who opposed them. From the first time they met the beast, Echo Six assumed that it would indiscriminately attack anyone besides them or S.T.A.R.S. members. This was a special kind of B.O.W.

"I think we'd better lend our people a hand." Party Girl said and they aimed and fired at the U.S.S. troops as well as their jumbo ally.

One Spec Ops person looked up and saw Echo Six on the rooftop and gestured the others of their presence.

Several Umbrella and Spec Ops members killed and injured one another while the Nemesis used its tentacle appendage to yank the same man that noticed Echo Six toward him and the Echo Six members watched in horror as the creature pummeled his victim to death single-handedly, slammed him to the ground and crushed his head in with the sole of his big boot. Blood and bone fragments were splattered all over the ground like a squashed insect.

With that over with, the Nemesis scooped up his chaingun and fired at the rest of his enemies, killing four of them faster than the U.S.S. troops would have and then he turned his attention onto Echo Six when Dee-Ay shot at his ugly head several times to draw the monster's attention from the Spec Ops.

The Nemesis, remembering the six people, roared and fired at them, but with his rocket launcher this time.

"DUCK!" yelled Shona and they all hurried as a single rocket soared at their direction and exploded at the building's edge. A chunk of it crumbled to the street and left a wide gap.

When Echo Six recovered from the blast, they sought to engage the creature, but then they saw him walking away from the battle and left the U.S.S. soldiers to fend for themselves against Echo Six and what was left of the Spec Ops unit.

"Where's that asswipe going now?" Harley questioned.

"We'll worry about it later, right now let's kill the Umbrella guys first." Dee-Ay said.

Bullets, blood and voracious shouting went on until all of the U.S.S. soldiers were dead. Only four Spec Ops soldiers survived.

Two additional enemy solders snuck up behind Echo Six and they were gunned down.

"Now let's go find that big-ass freak in the coat and kill it." said Harley and the team descended to the streets via the stairs the dead soldiers had used to reach them.

_I can't believe that came out of my mouth!_ Harley thought and shuddered just from realizing it.

They met up with the remaining Spec Ops survivors on the street and asked if they needed anything and they required medical attention for their wounded. Harley handed over some of the first aid sprays that he brought when the Echo Six group first came and the soldiers began treating themselves with the sprays as soon as possible and Echo Six left to continue their quest.

They took another alley path, following whatever footprints and clues the large monster left behind.

After spending while walking around, they finally discovered the whereabouts of the Nemesis creature. He was seen standing near another abandoned STAGLA gas station. He looked like he was waiting for them.

"Alright people! Let's take him down right here!" Shona said and another battle ensued between them and the giant.

A growl escaped his lip-less jaws and he fired his gatling gun at them again.

Dee-Ay immediately re-activated his invulnerability and none of the monster's rounds penetrated his form while his teammates dove for cover behind some vehicles.

"We should use explosives on the creature to kill him faster!" Willow shouted.

Everyone except Dee-Ay glared at Tweed since she was the only one with the right equipment for that kind of job. She was more than willing to carry it out, but she was going to need a little help in bringing the gun-toting thing down.

Tweed accepted her chore and radioed the team's leader since he was still out there and busy with the Nemesis.

"Dee-Ay, come in! I'm going to put my landmines to use in killing our big friend. But to do that, I need you to distract him like you did with our enemies at the radio station until I'm finished." she said to him.

"Can do, Tweed!" Dee-Ay responded as he kept firing, hoping he would not have to keep this up all night.

Tweed turned to the rest. "I need the rest of you to help him in keeping that hideous abomination off my back while I do my part."

"You can count on us!" said Party Girl.

They each separated from their cover spots and ganged up on the giant who now turned and focused on them while Tweed, unseen by the adversary, dropped her LMG, fished out her landmine explosives from their pouches and moved quickly to begin her plan of attack.

"Hey, Scarface! Over here!" Harley yelled to get the monster's attention. He got what he wanted as the enemy shot at him.

The former outlaw biker ducked behind a dumpster near the gas station and injected himself with one of his pain-numbing drugs to help him out in the battle. Not only would it decrease his pain receptors, better known as numbing his skin so he wouldn't feel anything, it would also heal him should he get hurt. It took a moment for him to clear the disorientation effect that came from using the drug before carrying on.

One of the bullets from the creature's gun scratched past his right shoulder. It hurt, but with the painkiller drug flowing in his system, Harley hardly felt it and the scrape the bullet gave him started healing on its own.

"I fucking love this stuff!" he said after seeing the results.

While Harley was busy, Willow activated another ability her suit came with; a stealth camouflage device that made her vanish completely, making her untraceable to the naked eye. This would also be a good thing for her because the Nemesis couldn't see her at all, just as Willow had intended. Despite being a B.O.W., the beast was unable to find her, but if she fired her weapons at him and vice-versa while under the radar, it was pretty obvious what could happen.

Tweed rushed to the gas station, crouched down near its gas pumps and placed a remote-controlled landmine near them. She planned on luring the large creature close enough to detonate the explosive which would in turn not only harm him, but the blast would also ignite the unused gasoline inside and underneath the pumps, create a bigger explosion and cause the station's ceiling to come crashing down on top of the Nemesis. The British woman hoped that her idea would most certainly kill the monster.

She quickly looked around for any zombies, didn't see a single one and returned to placing the second and final mine in position.

Tweed looked up upon hearing another rocket being fired at Shona and Willow and it didn't hit them.

_That was bloody close!_ she thought to herself as she got up and backed away from the trap as far as possible.

With her plan all set and ready to go, Tweed raised her machine gun and fired a quick burst at the Nemesis to snag his attention, hitting his coat.

Feeling that, the Nemesis turned and saw the red head soldier.

"Come and get me, ya ugly wanker!" she shouted.

Enraged, not by what she called him, but from being shot at, the giant walked to her, completely unaware of what she had in store for him.

While moving, he pressed the trigger of his weapon to shoot and it suddenly refused to operate. Apparently, the gun was overheated from excessive us and needed time to cool off and so the creature resorted to using his rocket launcher instead, causing Tweed to silently panic.

He stopped right in the middle of the gas station and as he raised his launcher and prepared to fire, Tweed then dropped her gun, dove backward, took out the remote for her bombs, yelled for the team to get back and slammed her thumb on the remote's button.

The mines suddenly and simultaneously detonated and the resulting explosion rocked the entire gas station as well as the whole street block. The Echo Six troops ducked for cover again.

As Tweed had predicted, her actions had caused the gas pumps to rupture sky-high thanks to the gasoline inside them. The Nemesis was engulfed in the flames that spewed out and the station's roof shook and began to crumble and collapse on top of the Nemesis, knocking his rocket launcher and chaingun out of his reach and buried him beneath the rubble.

The Nemesis groaned weakly from his mass injuries and stuck one hand out from the rubble pile before ceasing all movement.

Soon after, Echo Six rejoined and they all stared at the mess Tweed had caused. Fires blazed and smoke rose from the remains.

"Ouch . . .!" said Dee-Ay.

"Holy shit, woman! You really did him in!" Harley commented.

"You made a monster sandwich outta him!" Party Girl cheered.

"Thanks. I'm glad my plan worked." Tweed said, grateful for the positive feedback.

After a brief moment of standing there in silence and awe, the group considered the abomination to be dead and radioed their CO.

"Command, we've put down that creature and the gang of hostiles." Tweed said.

"Copy, Echo Six. Video feeds on those hostiles show them to be Umbrella Security Service. Continue your mission. Go to City Hall and look for Intel on the location of Umbrella's facilities."

Roger that, Command. Echo Six out." said Dee-Ay and the transmission ended and the six soldiers walked away from the ruins of the battle and leaving the buried Nemesis behind.

During their departure, Tweed remembered her LMG weapon and went to retrieve it first.

Later when they ventured deeper into the city, they all heard pistol gunshots and immediately ran toward its direction cautiously since they were unsure if the shooter or shooters were even allies or enemies or perhaps it was Jill Valentine again.

When they arrived on the scene of the commotion, the Echo Six troops witnessed a horde of undead zombies moving toward someone fighting them off. It was a Hispanic and/or Latino man dressed in military combat garb. He had a patch on the back of his uniform that had the initials "U.B.C.S." etched on and he even wielded an official U.B.C.S. crafted handgun to fend off the waves of zombies which were swarming around him.

Several of the virus creatures went down and the man's handgun was soon depleted of its ammunition and the man was no longer able to defend himself against the infected.

With no ammo clips on him to reload his weapon with, the operative's face fell grim and he started inching backward from the zombies shuffling toward him, boxing him in like a trapped animal. It looked like he was done for.

Because the lone unidentified soldier was affiliated with the Umbrella company as the U.S.S. unit were, Echo six assumed he was just another hostile and one of them even thought about leaving him behind to meet his doom at the rotting hands, and mouths, of the B.O.W.s and thought he deserved what was coming to him until their boss called in.

"Echo Six. Save that survivor; he might have information we can use against Umbrella!"

Harley was going to counter the order but Dee-Ay agreed to carry it out despite who the unknown person was working for.

They cocked their weapons and went in.

The U.B.C.S. soldier saw Echo Six putting down the zombies and, amid the confusion, he involved himself in the fight and killed his share of the undead, but with a knife that he just found instead since he was void of any ammo and had no other firearms on him. He had another knife with him before, but he lost it.

After killing the hungry zombies, the survivor turned to speak to Echo Six and he saw one of them aiming a pistol directly at him. He assumed that he was going to be killed and was about to quickly tell the soldier to stop, but the gun was fired anyway.

The man wanted to scream, believing he was shot and was going to die until he quickly realized that the shot wasn't meant for him and he turned around after hearing a zombie's groan behind him.

The creature was struck in the head and was killed. The man sighed in relief and turned his attention to the people who helped him out.

"The name's Carlos Oliveira. Thanks for saving my ass." he told them.

"No problem. You out here alone?" Willow asked.

"No. I got split up from my team at City Hall. We were trying to rescue civilians." said Carlos.

_Rescue civilians my ass!_ Harley thought, still unwilling to trust the man who was now taking a short walk.

"What a coincidence. That's what we're doing, too." said Willow.

"Last I heard, some soldiers we were rolling through were setting explosives all over the place." Carlos said to her.

"Sounds like it's a party worth crashing. You go and find someplace safe." Harley suggested.

Before Carlos was able to say anything, the moment was suddenly interrupted by gunfire from newly-arrived U.S.S. soldiers.

"Echo Six, proceed to City Hall and defuse the bombs those soldiers are setting." their boss commanded.

"Roger that." said Shona and they all returned fire at their adversaries.

Willow gave Carlos the signal to go immediately and leave the U.S.S. troops to them and he obeyed and ran toward a fence, hopped over it, turned a corner and was gone to parts unknown to Echo Six.

Two U.S.S. men were approaching them, shooting while walking.

Harley shot one in the legs and the other was hit in his forearm. Both soldiers screamed and clutched at their newly-inflicted wounds, leaving them vulnerable to be finished off by the biker.

They soon approached the City Hall building that was already occupied by more U.S.S. forces. Searchlights from the top moved to Echo Six's direction and the people guarding the building's entrance prepared to attack.

"Echo Six, it's those Umbrella soldiers again; they're the ones setting the bombs. Stop them!" said Spec Ops Command.

"Keep down! Stay out of their line of sight!" Willow said as they fought against the enemy.

It was dense and adrenaline-pumping, but the Echo Six party gave it their all and overcame the Umbrella operatives and started walking toward the building. None of them had any idea during the mission that another Umbrella team similar to themselves had already passed by this exact building.

A leftover Umbrella soldier was heard groaning and Dee-Ay simply shot the man dead without even looking.

Just being near City Hall gave Harley a case of the chills. To him, it looked like some sort of haunted building from a scary film or an amusement park ride.

"Enter City Hall and find the records room. Search the planning records for anything that could be an Umbrella facility and defuse any bombs along the way." said Command.

When they entered, they saw some burning items on the floor and all over the place. They appeared to be a pile of papers, but they soon realized that those papers were documents, and not just any documents, they had Umbrella written all over them and now they were all blazing on the ground in front of them.

"They're burning documents." Willow said.

"Probably evidence of Umbrella's involvement and location. Whatever's left will be blown up if you don't defuse those bombs." Command commented.

Echo Six pushed forward, keeping an eye out for any explosives rigged to detonate. Tweed was the only one on the team with experience with bombs as witnessed from their fight with the S.T.A.R.S. hunter and so she took point and put to use a device of hers that would detect any explosive booby traps.

Rotting and mutilating corpses were found sprawled on the floor of the next room, some shot and others bitten or torn. These Umbrella people really meant business judging from the way they handled what they created.

Tweed approached a staircase with two laser-trip mines strapped apart on different steps and studied them carefully. She had a feeling that some of their Umbrella enemies who planted the yet-to-be-discovered bombs were around somewhere and gunfire, explosions or any loud sound would alert them to Echo Six's presence in the building although they were going to know eventually. This wasn't a stealth mission.

Getting her bomb-disposal tools ready, Tweed carefully got closer to the first trip mine to begin her work. Defusing a explosive was similar to performing surgery. What they both had in common was that if a wrong move was initiated, a huge loss would occur.

The other Echo Six members were nervously silent as Tweed worked on the bomb, hoping she would succeed without making a mistake. Unlike her fellow teammates, the English woman had no fear of her job since she was completely used to doing it. Still, that didn't mean she was incapable of failing.

It only took her ten seconds to deactivate the mine and Tweed turned around and gave the team a thumbs-up and they were relieved to know that she did it and she turned and focused on the second mine, being able to walk through the first mine without any consequences. When it came to defusing explosives, Tweed was pretty fast at accomplishing it than most others in her field of work.

Zombies were heard and spotted entering the area and the Echo Six members had to confront them all, but to avoid bring forth any U.S.S. personnel to the scene, they chose to kill the creatures quietly. In other terms, without the use of firearms or grenades. Each person except Tweed fished out their knives and attacked.

Unable to defend herself, Tweed requested that someone cover her while she concentrated on her task and Party Girl was up for the job.

None of them noticed a Crimson Head zombie running toward them with another mine trap within range of its rotting legs. The creature ignited the trap just by crossing the beam and both it and the mine blew up. Echo Six turned in reaction and shock from the sudden blast. That would surely bring in any enemy soldier to their area. and they'd be in big trouble.

As predicted, a door burst open and automatic gunfire blared and the Echo Six squad were forced to seek cover. Now they were in big trouble.

Dee-Ay reactivated his ability and Willow used a new one that rendered her invisible.

One U.S.S. member got shot by Shona and collapsed down another staircase that was armed with trip mines and exploded when the soldier's body made contact with the beam. For Tweed, that was one less trap to worry about.

Dee-Ay rushed up the steps and took out the remaining enemies above while the others handled the soldiers on the floor.

With her invisibility in play, Willow managed to kill as many hostiles as she can. None of them saw her coming until it was too late.

The hall was now clear of enemies and Echo Six proceeded further. Up on the balcony was the first bomb, set and ready to explode. Its tip blinked a red light and the computer screen that controlled the weapon also glowed red and a message was written on its screen that said "WEAPON ARMED".

Dee-Ay, after looking around to ensure that they were alone, silently nodded for Tweed to approach the bomb and she did. She examined it from top to bottom, read its computer and grabbed for her tools and got to work again.

She soon finished disarming the bomb and the computer screen changed color from red to green and showed a new message that said "STANDBY". The device was no longer a threat as long as nobody reactivated it via its computer system, of course.

**One down, only two more to go.** Tweed thought and after letting the others know of her success, they soon left.

They reached a section with multiple gaps and in the middle stood a few statues of businessmen.

The second armed bomb was later discovered and Echo Six noticed that there was no one around to guard it unlike with the previous bomb. It were as if anyone could approach the bomb and do whatever they wished with it.

Tweed knew the drill and was about to disarm it when the glass ceiling above suddenly shattered and another rag-tag group of U.S.S. soldiers dropped in, surprising Echo Six.

"Kill those soldiers first before taking care of the bomb." said Spec Ops Command.

Both factions got into another gun scuffle. While nobody from Echo Six received any fatal injuries, those from the opposite weren't so lucky.

An enemy trooper escaped and snuck around hoping to catch the Echo Six people by surprise. Party Girl happened to be the closest one and she was unaware of the incoming situation, and so the soldier jumped her from behind by grabbing her and knocked her down on her side. She dropped her gun and was now grappling with the soldier who held her hands down with his teammates didn't notice as they were busy at the moment.

"After I kill ya, how's about I have some fun with ya afterwards, sweetheart?" the man said sinisterly and with an accent similar to Party Girl's.

Hearing that disgusted Party Girl, learning that the Umbrella soldier dared to have the sickening idea of committing violent, sex acts on her, especially at a time like this.

Not on her watch.

The southern woman jammed her right foot against the soldier's unprotected crotch area hard, forcing him to release her to tend to his pain and allowing Party Girl to shove the man off her and kill him with her handgun.

"Sorry, sicko. I'm not into perverts. Especially dead ones." she remarked and rejoined the fight.

The last of the Umbrella soldiers ran out of ammo for his weapon and was trying to reload. That was when Dee-Ay and Shona tackled him just as he was about to run away and Shona held the man down long enough for Dee-Ay to yank one pin from a grenade on the soldier's vest. Both men released him and ran for cover.

The man panicked and struggled to remove his equipment, but he was too late and his own grenades killed him in a fiery blast.

Before they could get back to defusing the bomb, three more Umbrella troops burst in from the area's balcony. All of them wore red uniforms, two were armed with Remington-model shotguns while the third one of their small group carried a flamethrower.

The ones with the shotguns fired wildly at Echo Six and the soldier with the flamethrower began igniting his large weapon around, being careful not to burn his own teammates.

Since the Echo Six members had no fire-retardant uniforms and equipment on them, they had to keep a far distance away from the pyromaniac bastard.

Thinking fast, Willow tossed a flash grenade into the field and it engulfed almost the entire place with bright light.

With their enemies distracted and disoriented by the flash, Echo Six fought back, killing them all. Most of their gunfire was concentrated on the flamethrower guy first. Their uniforms were bullet-resistant, making it tough to harm them at first, but eventually they prevailed.

Taking a liking to the flamethrower, Harley decided to bring it with him.

"Now that's what I'm talkin' about!" he gloated. The entire weapon was heavy to carry, but then again, that was the idea.

Alone again, the group turned back to the bomb and Tweed disarmed it.

"There we go. Now there's just one more left somewhere." she said.

The hunt for the final bomb resumed in another room they took after passing through the same place they entered the building through.

Tweed led the team to it since she had her bomb-detecting device and Party Girl kept an eye out for any U.S.S. ambushes with her goggled.

When Echo Six approached a door leading to where Tweed's small machine supposedly sensed the third bomb, and Party Girl revealing no enemy traces beyond it, they broke the door down and entered an art gallery.

To their shock and horror, they discovered that the entire gallery was in ashes. It seemed that a large fire incident had already took place and burned a third of the area to a complete crisp. They also found bodies of Licker creatures lying around, but they were already dead via immolation and gunshot wounds. The team realized that whoever was here before them must have battled these creatures, set the gallery on fire and left the monsters to die inside. They didn't know what they were and, frankly, they didn't want to.

Getting back to matters at hand, Echo Six searched the gallery ruins until the last bomb was found.

Tweed cracked her knuckles and proceeded to her duty.

The bomb was taken care of, their task was finished and they reported it to their superiors.

"Echo Six to Command: we've disarmed all of the bombs." Party Girl said first.

"Excellent job, Echo Six. Now get to finding out about Umbrella's secret facilities."

"You got it, Command." said Party Girl. Transmission ended for now and Echo Six were now free to exit and carry out their next order.

As they were getting ready to leave, a loud beeping sound echoed throughout the room and aggressive hissing sounds were heard coming from somewhere in that very room.

Soon, groups of Licker creatures started emerging from the vents built into the walls and ceilings of the gallery room. The Echo Six group recognized them as the same creature types as the dead ones in the area.

"What the fuck are those?!" Willow asked fearfully.

Since they ain't friendly, then they're dead meat." Harley answered, gripping the nozzle of his flamethrower.

"Echo Six, open fire! They're mutated infected!" said Command.

The gallery room lit with gunfire everywhere. The Lickers were growing in number whenever one perished.

Some of the creatures made their way across the floor and walls and some simply leaped, making them, the leapers, the ones to shoot at first.

One was killed by Shona and he was going to focus on another when that exact same creature snared his gun with its slimy long-inch tongue.

Shona uttered a curse in a foreign language and whipped out his side arm and fired it at the Licker. Its brain and face were hit and Shona spent his gun's entire clip to kill it and retrieve his scattered weapon.

Harley had barely missed being tackled by a Licker and after wounding one of its front limbs, he eyes a large vase and used it to temporarily stun the Licker. When that happened, he gave the creature a strong shove and it toppled back and tripped a nearby laser mine and was killed in the explosion.

Realizing that fighting the monsters was a time waster and a risk to them all, Echo Six decided to leave the gallery.

After getting out, Willow and Shona quickly slammed the double doors shut together and left the skinless B.O.W.s inside to fend for themselves, just like the creature before them.

One Licker however, managed to escape the gallery seconds before the doors closed and this creature whipped its tongue at the nearest Echo Six member it could find and that happened to be Tweed who tripped and fell when the appendage tagged her legs.

Lucky for Tweed, her legwear was thick enough to prevent the horrid tongue from piercing her flesh and infecting her with the T-Virus in any way.

The Licker, of course, was killed by the group.

"Disgusting wanker!" Tweed said to the corpse and the team moved on.

"Echo Six. You should head to the Records Room. It's located on the building's top floor." Command ordered.

The six-person unit trekked up the stairway and all over the second balcony, dispatching every zombie along the way and getting rid of more trap mines by either Tweed's method or by simply destroying them from safe distances.

Unable to locate their destination anywhere on the second floor, Echo Six tried the third floor.

A few Crimson Head zombies burst out of closed rooms and were taken down, although two were killed via CQC.

A bathroom for men was seen during the trip and, in need of a little break, Harley requested one and asked the team to wait for him outside and they obliged. Willow simply rolled her eyes in friendly annoyance and told him to hurry which he promised to do.

A minute and five seconds later, sounds of flushing and running water were heard and Harley stepped out, fresh and ready to go.

Party Girl jokingly asked Harley if he washed his hands thoroughly and he gave a sarcastic laugh and said "Very funny".

Eventually, Echo Six were sent another transmission.

"The Records Room and the Intel we're looking for is right ahead."

A door that said "RECORDS ROOM" was noticed ahead and they barged right in.

Party Girl scanned for enemies with her goggles and found nothing to be alarmed of and told them so.

"Echo Six, search the Records Room for details on all of Umbrella's facilities." Command said and they got to work on that.

The whole Records Room was in shambles. The floor was littered with useless papers, books and dust. Some of the room's shelves were sprawled on the ground and against each others and some remained standing.

Time passed as the group completely searched the entire room for their objective and they regrouped in the middle of the room and reported on finding nothing. But they didn't give up there, they just weren't looking hard enough.

A door opposite of them was heard opening and they stopped in their tracks and concealed themselves within the room. Party Girl saw through her goggles and saw another team of U.S.S. soldiers entering the room. They appeared to be searching for someone or something. Whatever their reason for being here was, Echo Six only knew it only meant trouble and they had to take them all down.

It seemed that their hunch about them was correct as the intruding Umbrella soldiers armed themselves with more flamethrower weapons and they began burning everything around them. Not good at all.

Party Girl found a leftover flashbang grenade on the ground under a shelf and used it to disorient the enemy troops.

"What the-?" one of them said when the grenade detonated.

"Now!" yelled Dee-Ay and Echo Six left their posts and attacked their enemies.

One of them recovered fast enough to use his flamethrower against the approaching Spec Ops unit. He nearly burned Dee-Ay, Tweed and Willow. That assailant was taken down along with the entire black ops group until all died.

Another sweep search was conducted after the Umbrella problem was finished and they finally found what they were sent to get: blueprint plans on top of a table. Of all the places they looked, the Echo Six people were dumbfounded to find their objective sitting in the middle of a damn table. They figured that this was the Intel Jill Valentine told them of back in the parking lot.

"That's a wicked amount of paper directed to an empty space hundreds of feet underground." Willow stated.

"Excellent work, Echo Six. It looks like you have found a previously unknown Umbrella facility. Your mission now is to locate and infiltrate it." said the team's CO.

Willow picked up the blueprints and she and the group examined it from top to bottom to get a better understanding of where they were going to head to next and what they're going to do once they got there.

They left the room and were soon outside the City Hall building. With their discovery of Intel indicating the existence of a secret Umbrella base beneath Raccoon City, Echo Six's new task, as Command already put it, was to find its hidden entrance. Perhaps this would help in busting Umbrella Inc and put them out of business forever.

They got another briefing from their boss.

"Echo Six, based on that map you accessed at City Hall, we believe that Umbrella's facility is buried deep under Raccoon City. Get into the sewers and see if you can find any access routes to it."

"Roger that, Command." Dee-Ay said and he and everyone else began their next journey.

Later on, they appeared in a shopping plaza area that was seemingly empty where a large clock tower was seen way across from them.

Seeing the architectural tower reminded Tweed of the Ben Ben clock tower back in her home country of England. Only this one was smaller compared to the tower she was reminded of.

Dee-Ay took point again and led the team through the deserted place. Each member was on constant alert for any surprises waiting to attack them.

Suddenly, zombies started pouring from everywhere, from the small shop next to them to the dumpsters across. Echo Six fought the invading creatures.

A couple of minutes later, something massive happened somewhere near the clock tower. A helicopter was seen flying close to the tower and then all of a sudden, a flying missile was seen shooting out from one side of the tower and it struck the chopper, damaging it severely enough to cause it to fall and crash directly into the tower followed by an explosion.

Using her goggles, Party Girl zoomed in to better observe what caused the destruction and saw the saboteur to be the same creature they fought with back at the STAGLA gas station; the Nemesis! The monster had apparently used his rocket launcher to incapacitate and destroy the helicopter.

The creature roared "SSTAARRRSSS!" and leaped down from the tower and onto the ground below where he was now out of view.

Remembering Jill Valentine being from the disavowed S.T.A.R.S. unit, Echo Six realized that the monster must have found her and is now after her just like before when they first met her and, unfortunately, him.

"Looks like 'Big, Tall and Ugly' is after Jll again." Party Girl said after deactivating her goggles.

Aside from their current problem, they also heard gunfire coming from the site, suggesting that Jill and the monster were at it and Echo Six felt that they should find her and help her kill the Nemesis despite the fact that they themselves tried that earlier and now learned that they failed.

A sound of machine gun fire was heard next and Echo Six thought the Nemesis was using his chaingun weapon. But they immediately realized that the new gunfire noise didn't exactly match the one the creature's gatling gun made when used. It sounded like it came from another automatic-type weapon and all Jill had when they met her was a pistol. That could mean one of three things: either Jill had found a machine gun during her travel around the city and was now using it against her giant, hideous enemy, there was another survivor with her and was helping her out, or another U.S.S. soldier was fighting alongside the Nemesis as the Umbrella troops are excluded from the creature's hit list.

Echo Six doubted that the Nemesis B.O.W. needed help from anyone as he was powerful enough on his own, so Jill must be receiving assistance from another person. Perhaps it was Carlos Oliveria, they figured.

"She's screwed three ways from Friday if we don't move our asses." Harley exclaimed.

"Command, Echo Six requesting permission to aid Jill Valentine." Tweed said.

"Request denied. Your mission isn't to rescue survivors."

Hearing that didn't suit well with the Echo Six members. When they geared up for Raccoon City, one of their tasks involved saving survivors wherever and whenever possible, not ignoring them. They briefed that to Jill a couple of hours ago. Leaving innocent people to die in this city sounded like something Umbrella would do anyway.

"That ain't right. We owe her." said Harley. Everyone else agreed with his complaint.

Having a change of thought, their boss replied, "Ok, make it quick. This is not your objective." Relieved, Echo Six gladly complied.

Something loud was unexpectedly fired and it flew past their heads above and took out a part of the fence that blocked a shortcut to the tower.

Echo six looked around and spotted someone from their own faction holding a rocket launcher that was smoking from its tip. The soldier waved silently and disappeared from his spot.

The group each gave a mental thanks to the person and made their way through the rubble and fought off the zombies that tried to stop them.

They entered a back door that led them inside a small chapel that was filled with dead zombie bodies and religious artifacts one would find in a place of worship. Bullet holes were seen in the corpses and Echo Six figured someone was here earlier. They assumed it was Jill, but they were wrong.

From outside, a loud grunt was heard and a voice was heard shouting. The team recognized the voice belonging to Carlos and they knew that he was the one helping Jill in the fight against the Nemesis creature. Both survivors were shooting their weapons while the Nemesis roared.

Exiting the chapel, they found a room with a grand piano on the side. A soft tune was heard being played from the piano, it sounded like "Moonlight Sonata", an old song from the 19th Century and the favorite of long gone S.T.A.R.S. member Rebecca Chambers. But nobody but the Echo Six soldiers was present, meaning that the instrument must have been an auto-tune piano.

When they got outside, they saw the Nemesis laying face-down on the ground and was bleeding from his underside. His weapons laid at his sides.

Carlos was seen next to Jill who was also laying on the ground and scooped her up. She wasn't responsive and had a gaping wound on her shoulder. It looked more like a stabbing wound than a bullet kind, leaving the Echo Six troops to fear the worst has happened to her.

Noticing the familiar government-affiliated group approaching, Carlos turned to them for help.

"What happened to her?" Party Girl asked.

"She's hurt. That thing tagged her with his tentacles and she's probably now infected." Carlos explained.

Jill didn't respond. She wasn't dead, just unconscious. Though if her injury was left untreated, she will be.

A deep groan came from nearby and they all turned and saw the Nemesis regaining consciousness. His left hand reached for his rocket launcher and he tilted his head up, saw the group of survivors and growled bitterly at the sight of Echo Six, remembering them from their previous encounter at the gas station. How he survived last time was beyond Echo Six.

Both the monster and Echo Six got ready for another battle with each other. Worried, Carlos wanted to say something, but was quickly interrupted.

"Get her and yourself out of here." Shona said to the South American mercenary.

"We'll stay and fuck him up for you." Harley said.

"Thanks. Good luck." Carlos said and started walking away with Jill cradled in his arms. He was seen heading to the same tower building Echo Six just came from and went inside. Now it was the Nemesis versus the Echo Six squad again.

The Nemesis foe was back on his feet and heaved his rocket launcher on his large shoulder. His chaingun was buried under the rubble of the helicopter but he didn't bother to dig it out.

As for Jill and Carlos, the beast chose to put those two aside for later and focused on getting rid of the Spec Ops agents.

Predicting what the abomination was going to do with the rocket launcher, Echo Six scattered away for cover while opening fire.

"We gotta lure it away from this place and from Carlos and Jill!" Willow shouted over the gunfire.

Seeing the gate that would lead out of the tower gardens, Dee-Ay tried to open it, but it was locked. With no key in sight and without one, they were trapped in the garden with the rampaging B.O.W.

Tweed took notice of the problem and volunteered to plant some of her C-4 explosives on the gate door to blow it open. Dee-Ay allowed it automatically and offered to distract their enemy again so she can work in peace.

However, as she rushed to do her job, the Nemesis saw her, raised his rocket launcher and fired a shot at her.

"Watch out!" Party Girl shouted and Tweed immediately leaped out of range of the incoming attack.

The rocket slammed itself into the gate and destroyed it, practically opening it and saving Tweed the trouble of accomplishing that herself.

"That works too!" She muttered and the unit rushed out of the garden site and into the park where they were met by staggering undead.

Another rocket was fired and it missed the troops, but it did hit some zombies and possibly saved them all some ammo.

They turned around during mid-run and saw the monster striding after them, shoving a zombie aside.

The zombies weren't much of a problem, so the group just ran past them and shoved away any that was close enough to grab them. None of the infected bothered with the hulking Nemesis. Some were killed just by being pushed aside due to his super strength.

They came upon the wreckage of another helicopter like the one before and another gate that was also locked. Beyond the gate was an entrance to a sewer, but that too was locked up, leaving Echo Six to figure out what to do.

Rather than having Tweed risk blowing either gate open again, the team planned on using the Nemesis to their advantage for a second time.

The creature appeared in front of them and prepared to fire his weapon again. Dee-Ay told the team to stand back and once again offered himself to the giant. To the Echo Six troops watching, this was purely a suicidal tactic. It was like performing the infamous "Bullet Trick" by daredevil magicians and the results would vary.

The Nemesis fired and the Echo Six leader quickly activated his invulnerability just in time as the incoming projectile collided with him and slammed him back against the gate hard, toppling it and breaking it down. Although saved from explicit harm all thanks to his technology, the impact still hurt, just not so much.

"Now's our chance, guys!" Dee-Ay said and he and Echo Six entered the new area, firing at their foe who roared and continued the chase.

Over time, the Echo Six group were starting to grow exhausted from running so much. The B.O.W. on the other hand felt nothing like that despite what went on last time and kept going after his targets. It was as if he were a fit athlete.

Just as he was going to follow Echo Six inside the sewer, the entrance started to crumble and topple and all the debris piled on each other, separating the Nemesis from his enemies.

Not allowing that to stop him, the monster tried firing his launcher again to blow his way in, but nothing came out of the rocket's shaft except a click sound. The weapon was empty of rocket ammo and the Nemesis bellowed angrily and began walking away from the sealed sewer entrance and park to restock on ammunition before going after them later.

Back inside the sewer, Echo Six heard the commotion from outside and also heard the creature retreating away much to their relief. They were safe from the behemoth . . . for now.

"Aww, crud!" Party Girl said when she noticed that they were now trapped in the sewers and the only known exit was now in ruins. Of course, all sewer facilities had multiple exits and the group just had to find another one.

"What do we do?" Willow asked.

Hearing zombies not too far and with no way out through the destroyed entrance, Echo Six knew the one thing they can do. It looked like they were going to have to explore the depths of the sewers to seek another exit.

Along with that, they still had to find an access route to Umbrella's underground facility as per their orders from their commanding officer.

Zombies were seen appearing from the shadows and Echo Six took them all on.

The team moved on after killing the creatures.

Sometime around, they all heard a powerful yell.

"Y'all hear that?" Party Girl asked them. The sound made her skin crawl.

They did indeed. It sounded monstrous and they each suspected it to be the Nemesis again, but they figured that it could not have been because it left just a mere few minutes ago. If it were him, then he would've burst in like a bulldozer, making a loud commotion. Besides, that yelling sound sounded nothing like the Nemesis, his vocal abilities were stronger than that. Whatever roared must have already been dwelling within the sewers long before any of the troops came along.

Something wet and pink-looking lashed at Echo Six from above the ceiling. They dodged it and looked up and saw the familiar Licker species as the cause.

"Crap! Those beasts are back to give us all another tongue lashing!" Harley stated just as one of the tongues struck him in the back. It didn't cut and infect him since his vest uniform acted as a thick padding for some types of physical trauma, but it still hurt.

Harley aimed and unleashed his flamethrower at the one that struck him and the creature screeched, detached from the ceiling and fell to the filthy, sewer water on the ground, rolling around in the water to cool its new burn wounds. It tried to get up, but the foul-mouthed biker stomped its head back down and killed it.

The rest of the Licker species were slaughtered soon enough.

Later on, Echo Six discovered later that zombies, Lickers and the unknown yelling monster weren't the only ones stalking them in the sewers for they stopped, looked farther ahead and saw a pack of virus dogs heading their way, but this time, there was a new feature to them; stick bombs were attached to their backs and collars. This, along with their movement speeds, made these creatures twice as dangerous as before.

"Shit! Fire, fire!" Dee-Ay yelled.

One dog's bomb trap exploded and brought down the rest of the dogs, and a few nearby zombies, in a chain reaction altogether.

Willow tossed a frag grenade in a doorway filled with zombies and three seconds later, they were vanquished.

Another zombie mob showed up, but these ones were wearing U.S.S. uniforms and the group figured that the Umbrella troops were here before them. Human or not, they had to be killed and they were. None of them gave a care about the soldiers being undead, they deserved what happened after what their company did to the town.

One grabbed Shona and tried to bite him, but it couldn't do that or scratch him because of the gloves and mask it wore which concealed its hands and rotting, infected face.

The man simply scooped the creature up, delivered a suplex and killed it when the back of its head smashed onto the floor.

"Over here!" Dee-Ay said and opened a metal door and the entered and walked up a flight of stairs and into a place with metal canisters, boxes and another zombified Umbrella soldier which Dee-Ay killed with his knife to save ammo.

They unit searched the new place for useful stuff and found only one can of health spray and a few handgun bullets which were both taken by Harley.

Noticing the large machinery ahead, they walked past another staircase and found a switch with red lights and a small computer and keyboard across from their position. Something told each of them that they had to activate the switch which in turn would start to fill up the machines.

While exploring, Party Girl saw a small armory room filled with ammo, more first-aid sprays and extra frag grenades. The problem was that the armor was inaccessible due to being sealed off by a bar door.

"Is it too much to hope that it's gone for good?" she asked. She tried to open the door, but it was no good.

"Allow me, love." Tweed said. Part Girl stepped back as Tweed planted a stick-timed explosive on the door, stood back herself and blew the door open.

The rest of the team swarmed inside the room and took all they could get.

Upon coming to a closed metal door, it was found to be locked and they guessed that the breaker switch from before was the only way to gain access.

Willow ran up to said switch, typed in a few commands on its keyboard and the door soon began sliding upward.

Before she could rejoin Echo Six, a sudden explosion took place and knocked back a few of the troops.

Recovering quickly, they encountered more undead zombies and U.S.S. forces. Some of the zombie population was reduced in the blast and with that done, Echo Six were able to concentrate on neutralizing their Umbrella targets in the foundry.

A spotlight shined at Echo Six, blinding them temporarily and making it hard to see who's shooting at them, but nevertheless, they each managed to avoid getting hit from taking cover behind some walls and barriers.

There was more than one spotlight in the fight and, due to their brightness, made the odds of Echo Six shooting and killing their foes with ease low.

Part Girl used her sniper rifle to shoot out the lights one at a time until she succeeded. With the lights out, it was less dangerous and they fired at the Umbrella soldiers.

Willow attempted to use her cloaking to sneak through the enemy borders and repeat what she did at the radio station, but one bullet ricocheted off a wall and struck a pipe on the ceiling, causing the emergency sprinklers to go off and shower water everywhere and this tampered with Willow's cloaking technology and made her visible right in front of the U.S.S. soldiers.

Upon discovery, she quickly hid behind a corner, barely missing incoming shots meant for her.

Eventually, the U.S.S. members were dead and two more of them stormed in and one of them tossed in an incendiary grenade that exploded in a huge wall of flames. Neither person was aware at the time that the sprinklers were still running. This seemed to be a stupid move on their behalf and the Echo Six squad rolled their eyes in utter embarrassment over that. The flames were extinguished, but by this time, the two soldiers had already fallen.

The group entered where the U.S.S. foes came from and found nothing but junk and more factory machines.

Party girl used her goggles to find more enemies and detected zombified Umbrella soldiers rising up as Crimson Heads and rushing in their direction.

They were shot and killed.

As of that moment, Echo Six were the only non-infected ones in the entire sewer factory so far. No further Umbrella troops interfered any longer. The only hostiles they would face from then on would be B.O.W.s.

Shona spotted another switch box that would open another electronic-operated door in their area and he went to turn it on.

The door slowly opened and they all stepped inside.

A flare was seen toppling over a flight of stairs and another crowd of Crimson Head zombies, ranging from civilians, security guards, workers and U.S.S. soldiers, ran down the stairs and began their attack. Each creature met its end by Echo Six.

A final switch was found and pressed.

At that moment, a door from below the team's position was busted down and was followed by a bellowing roar. Turning to investigate, Echo Six saw a familiar figure standing right below them. It was the Nemesis creature and, as usual, he was angry and was demanding of a rematch with Echo Six.

"Seems our old friend is back!" said Shona.

They all hoped that the monster hadn't found and killed Jill or Carlos. Something about the current situation was abyss though. They wondered that if the creature was programmed to hunt anyone from the S.T.A.R.S. unit, why was he after them? None of the Echo Six members were affiliated with S.T.A.R.S. and yet this thing wanted was stalking them more than Jill.

"Echo Six, your current location places you in a foundry. Any chance of heating up a vat of molten iron for your friend?" Spec Ops Command said.

The group looked up and saw a giant crucible with boiling hot iron hanging above the floor and understood the message. They could use the hot iron to defeat the Nemesis and this time, they hoped it would do the job of killing him, thus saving Jill, Carlos, and themselves, plenty of trouble from this freakshow.

The Nemesis roared and unleashed his gatling gun's bullets.

For a while, Echo Six had to use cover until the giant stopped shooting. Dee-Ay thought about using his anti-damage technology again, but stopped after remembering what happened before. Sure, his ability prevented harm to him, but as the rocket incident from the tower park proved, he can still feel some degrees of pain if hit too hard and the Nemesis' weapons wore his technology off faster than regular attacks and projectile weapons could.

Ten seconds later, the monster's gun stopped firing and Echo Six took the chance to scramble in all directions. Splitting up would be a great way to handle the ugly threat.

The Nemesis resorted to his rocket launcher and fired. This time, the weapon was loaded again as a rocket flew out of the tube and at its intended targets, its operator not caring who he hit which almost happened to be Harley as the rocket missed him by inches and struck a wall.

It collapsed into rubble and he barely escaped unscathed and coughing from inhalation of some dust from the crash.

Echo Six fired simultaneously at the creature from all directions. The beast shielded his head and face with his arm holding the rocket launcher and resumed to shooting his chaingun blindly at random spots to make them stop.

Willow turned a direction and one of the pipes she grabbed to aid with her movement gave out and she wound up falling off the balcony she was standing on and onto the ground with the Nemesis.

Seeing her, the creature began walking toward Willow and got read to gun her down with his chaingun.

"Oh, shit!" Willow yelled and frantically dashed for safety as bullets flew.

She was lucky that she had quick reflexes and running speed to avoid getting shot, especially by large bullets from a handheld gatling gun. Willow was in too much panic that she forgot to initiate her cloaking device to simply hide her from the Nemesis.

Her teammates saw this and went to help her out.

Harley spotted a bazooka weapon and picked it up in a hurry. Despite not being much of a wiz on launcher-type weapons, he was willing to try anyway.

Willow was soon pinned down behind a stack of metal crates and shouted for help.

"On it!" said Harley as he took aim and fired his new toy at the monster, scoring a direct hit when the missile slammed in the creature's back.

"How do you like being shot at with rockets, asshole?" he shouted.

Angered, the Nemesis turned around, saw Harley and desired to attack him. The biker member fired an additional rocket, but this time, the creature deflected the projectile with one hand after dropping one of his weapons and that rocket flew into a wall and exploded. A giant hole was now present in the wall.

Shona and Party Girl met up back in the place with the crucible switch. They looked out at the ledge and saw their enemy pursuing their comrades.

"That metal ready yet?" Party Girl asked Shona.

Shona stared at the iron pot above, saw the molten liquid still being poured inside and shook his head.

Party Girl was disappointed and asked which one of them was to stay and keep watch over the trap while the other deals with the monster. Shona was up for the job and was told to be extra careful and not draw the creature's attention unless absolutely necessary and rushed to assist.

She turned a corner, hoping her plan wouldn't screw her over, and ran smack into the beast himself!

He swung his weapons at her melee-style and she instinctively dodged and ran away just as the Nemesis started to open fire upon her with his gun.

The southern woman cursed herself for not using her goggles to locate the monster first and put them over her eyes.

Meanwhile, Shona saw a green light illuminating on the crucible controls that told him that the hot material was ready to be used.

Thinking up a plan, Shona informed the rest of the unit about the melted iron being ready and asked any one of them to lure the beast under the full crucible so that he can spring its contents on him.

"Leave that to me, Shona." said Willow despite the irony of her being trapped by the foe earlier. Before going, she jokingly apologized to Tweed and through her radio for getting ready to copy her idea from the gas station battle.

"None taken." she said.

Other than playing "bait" to protect her friends, Willow knew that the Nemesis seemed to follow just about anything that attacked him and decided to use this as part of her plan.

Willow moved her way through the foundry, hearing the sounds of battle and the creature's roaring until she found him at last. His back was turned to her as he was busy looking for them.

"Over here!" Willow yelled and he turned around and saw her. The B.O.W. roared and Willow turned and ran with the creature following after her through the darkened factory corridors.

"I have him on my trail, so nobody shoot him until he's underneath the crucible or he'll lose me! Shona, get ready to pour that stuff on him when I give the signal!" Willow said in her radio.

Everyone agreed to let the Nemesis chase their comrade and made their way to the center of the factory to watch. They held their fire for the moment and hid behind some objects to keep the beast from seeing them.

Willow made it to the designated spot and stood where the trap was supposed to happen while taking the time to catch her breath. Deep down, she was nervous of the fact that she was standing under a large, heavy pot full of hot, lava-like liquid that was capable of melting the flesh and clothing off of her in a minute or two. Nevertheless, she remained in her spot and waited for the Nemesis.

He appeared, saw Willow and walked toward her, blissfully unaware of what his enemy was up to.

_That's right, come to momma . . ._ Willow thought. She slung her primary weapon on her back and goaded the creature to keep walking using the "come here" hand gesture.

When the timing was accurate, the Native American soldier then moved out of range as the Nemesis was about to strike her with the side of his gun.

"NOW!" she shouted.

The entire group opened fire at the monster simultaneously. The Nemesis roared at this and wanted to retaliate, but was soon weakened by the gunfire and dropped to one knee.

"He's down! Shona, quick!" Dee-Ay ordered.

Shona pressed a button on the crucible control panel and the hovering pot tipped over.

Everyone in that place watched in awe as the smoldering metal liquid was poured all over the B.O.W. like milk on cereal.

The painful carnage lasted about twelve seconds and by the time it stopped, the Nemesis was now in awful shape. Parts of his black coat were burnt off and the flesh on his head, shoulder and hands were blackened like plague sores or boils.

Echo Six couldn't celebrate just yet because the Nemesis, despite his new burn injuries, was still alive. However, one positive thing came from this: when the Nemesis fired his gatling gun at his enemies, nothing happened. His gatling gun was highly damaged from the magma and could no longer function at all despite being full of ammunition. He tried again and the gun still would not fire.

Frustrated, the creature let his now-useless weapon drop to the ground and opted to using his rocket launcher instead. Unlike the chaingun, the launcher was still able to work properly even though it too suffered some burn damage.

"C'mon, let's go! His machine gun's toast!" said Part Girl.

It was going to take more than one measly molten-hot shower of magma to bring the monster down and to do that, Echo Six were going to have to heat up the other crucibles just like the first one.

"Start the ovens!" Willow said and ran for the upper balconies to escape the creature before she ended up in serious trouble. One of them was going to have to use the marked breaker to restart the crucible.

A second switch was found by Dee-Ay and he activated it. Somewhere in the factory, they heard the sound of the next crucible being filled up with the hot material. They worried if the Nemesis would be able to figure out their battle strategy as he already carried enough intellect to operate weapons. With the exception of vampires, undead creatures were generally considered to lack this knowledge in cultural media and the city's creature population proved it.

With the pot busy being filled, Echo Six had to keep the monster occupied until everything was set and ready.

With the chaingun now useless, the Nemesis was free to use his hand tentacle which it started doing with Party Girl since she was the closest one near him.

"Crap! Someone help me out, here!" she screamed as the wrapped appendage began dragging her toward its master.

Shona saw what was happening and he, Dee-Ay and Harley fired at the behemoth until the Nemesis was forced to release Party Girl and with her free again, she threw an incineration grenade she found from a dead U.S.S. member at her opponent.

As the monster recovered from the gunfire and was set on chasing after his attackers again, the grenade went off and burned his legs and feet. Although he wore heavy leather boots, he could still feel the burning sensation from the grenade as evidenced by his voracious roaring and hopping around to put out the flames.

Soon, the crucible pot was full again and Shona, still in position, told the team of the trap being ready and asked them to repeat what they did last time.

"Echo Six, you have to get that thing under the crucible when it pours!" Command told them all and the group put their same plot into effect.

This time, Harley offered to lead their adversary to the trap.

Leaping down onto the bottom floor, Harley whistled to the creature to draw its attention and it worked.

"Hey, Frankenstein! Want a piece of me? Then come and get me!" he said to the monster.

The Nemesis dropped his launcher, picked up a nearby barrel and threw it at Harley who leaped out of the way. The barrel crashed on the ground and hit a wall.

"What was that? You throw like a fucking wuss! Even my grandmother can throw better than you!" Harley taunted.

As if he understood what Harley had said, the creature then began to sprint after the wise-cracking man in a fit of rage.

Harley panicked and started running to the designated spot. Apparently, his remark about the creature being slow backfired as the Nemesis was running at top speed. Faster than a Crimson Head, a parasitic zombie (which they haven't met yet) or a Cerberus dog.

Harley dodged every tentacle whipping from the giant until he managed to get him close to where the crucible pot was to pour.

"Let him have it, Shona!" Harley yelled and evaded another lash attack.

The crucible tipped over and the monster received a second drenching.

From his distant spot, Harley observed the event while gasping and wheezing for breath. Sure, he was an excellent runner, but the speed of this hideous and unsightly powerhouse almost surpassed his own and he nearly got caught and killed during the subsequent chase. Other than that, he also used to smoke, drink and do drugs a lot in his earlier days as most outlaw bikers usually do before he joined the military and eventually the Spec Ops Field Unit, which affected his health although he was slowly recovering from his former lifestyle. That was possibly the reason why he had trouble with running so fast and why catching his breath after prolonged and extreme movements such as that was somewhat difficult for him to accomplish than a former addict trying to resist drugs and alcohol.

Even though he had quit drinking and smoking, he still had a few more years to go before his cardiac system would be somewhat fully operational again.

The crucible emptied the last of its burning contents on the Nemesis. His appearance had worsened now, but he was still able to continue chasing after the Echo Six soldiers, burned or not.

Zombies appeared and the group quickly disposed them as fast as possible.

"Don't just shoot the zombies! Save some ammo for the big man!" said Party Girl.

The next and final switch for refilling the pot was found by Tweed and Willow and they pressed it and the crucible began filling up again. As usual, the Echo Six members had to bide their time with the Nemesis again.

Feeling the need to help out, Shona left his post for a moment to find the target creature. He killed a few zombies that got in his way.

After finding the monster stalking the other soldiers and seeing the incoming zombies, rather than shoot at the giant, which would prove to be a bad move as the creature would go after him, Shona took out one of his pheromone bombs, warned the others to get far back as possible and he tossed the grenade at the beast.

The pheromone device dropped near the Nemesis and started releasing its gas cloud chemical which was blue-colored. The gas covered the Nemesis and attracted the attention of all surviving zombies and they all moved towards the blue cloud and creature.

Shona received some congrats from Dee-Ay for his idea and they all stopped and watched the Nemesis being attacked by the crazed zombie crowd.

Of course, none of the rotting, walking corpses didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell against the terrible giant as he flung them back and killed them with his bare hands and tentacles.

When the crucible was ready again, Shona returned to his post on the balcony to do his job.

Party Girl volunteered to be the bait for the Nemesis this time.

As soon as the pheromone gas wore off, Party Girl got the creature's attention on her and he followed her throughout the place. Unlike Harley, Party Girl was able to hold out on her own and was faster than him. However, it wasn't just that, the creature was also physically weakened from Echo Six's trap twice in a row, it hurt him more than bullets or even grenade explosions. Despite being powerful from the T-virus flowing in his body, even the Nemesis himself had his limits and a third molten bath bringing him down was what could lead to his downfall.

"Party Girl, get that thing where it needs to be!" Dee-Ay said.

"Right!" Party Girl responded and turned while still running to see if the Nemesis was still following her and he was.

Taking notice of his decreasing speed, Party Girl couldn't resist saying what she had in mind.

"What's wrong, tough guy? Getting tired and can't take any more? It's a real shame for your creators to find out that you, their most powerful weapon, is being outrun and outmatched by a girl!" Her comment made the male members of Echo Six gasp and wonder if their enemy was able to decipher speech at all other than orders from Umbrella.

If that were possible, then he'd be really angry right now.

After some further running, Party Girl ventured to the trap's spot with the Nemesis in hot pursuit. At this time, she expected her teammates to unleash gunfire at him, instead they had something else in mind.

With the Nemesis being fooled into approaching underneath the hovering iron pot, Echo Six, with the exceptions of Shona and Party Girl, planned on using a discarded cable cord to trip the incoming B.O.W.

Party Girl knew what was up and ran across the cord after seeing it, but when the Nemesis got near, the cord was yanked from both sides and he wound up falling down.

Shona pressed the switch and the crucible dumped the hot substance onto the creature. The group fled for safety just in case.

Like before, the Nemesis yelled and moved about wildly as he suffered his third agonizing magma shower. Echo Six did nothing but observe the event, their weapons ready to shoot as a precaution.

When the crucible was empty again, the Nemesis creature was seen laying face down on the floor unmoving. Nobody was sure if he had died or was just unconscious and neither any of them dared to learn that the old-fashioned way.

"Did that kill him?" Party Girl asked. No one gave an answer.

After a quiet moment of waiting, Harley shattered the silence by aiming his gun at the fallen creature and fired one bullet at his head, causing the others to flinch back with their weapons aimed as well.

The Nemesis did not respond to the shot and the troops sighed in relief.

"I'd say that's a 'yes'." he said.

"He should be dead. Good work, Echo Six. Continue on to the sewers and find that Umbrella facility." said Spec Ops Command and the Echo Six squad turned around and began walking away from the spot where the downed monster lay.

They figured that Jill Valentine would be relieved to know that her pursuer was long gone, if her injury from her fight with the creature didn't kill her, that is.

Their travels lead them to another section of the town, a wrecked neighborhood community that looked as if a festive celebration had taken place prior to the citywide disaster. A banner flag tied above them between two poles read "RACCOON CITY ANNUAL FAIR! FOOD, GAMES, PRIZES AND MORE!" What an awful time for a street festival to be held.

"Looks like we missed one hell of a party." Party Girl commented on their surroundings which she found to be ironic due to her codename.

As they scouted the environment, one zombie corpse that was spotted laying on a car's hood suddenly sprang to life and struggled to get off the car and lunge at the nearest Echo Six operative, namely Party Girl, who immediately aimed her sniper rifle at the creature out of reflex.

Shona approached the struggling zombie and removed from his back pocket a hypo gun.

"What are you doing?" Harley asked him.

"I'm taking a specimen while it's still fresh." Shona answered.

He readied his medical gun device, moved closer to the zombie and jammed the object's nozzle into the zombie's neck and used it to suck out some of its blood and fill it into the gun's tube container.

To keep the creature from attacking him, Shona got behind the zombie, grabbed its hair and arched its head back. All the undead thing could do was wail and fling its arms and hands about helplessly as the team's virologist did his work.

Like a certain someone from the Umbrella Security Service, he too had a thing for science, hence his position in Echo Six. But unlike that other person, Shona did not see the outbreak as some kind of science jackpot. It was all horrible to him. Every undead creature in the whole city was a victim of the evil virus that eradicated them

When his hypo gun was full of zombie DNA, Shona whipped out his knife, uttered a quiet and quick apology to the virus infectee in a foreign language and killed it with a swift strike to the top of its skull and yanked the blade out after the zombie was dead.

Just then, random gunfire echoed through the air and caught Echo Six's attention. They looked around, wondering where it was coming from and who was causing it.

There were a couple of possibilities for it: it was either fellow soldiers from the Spec Ops, the enemy troops from the U.S.S., or other survivors despite what Jill said about any survivors being deceased. Either way, someone was around shooting up the living dead.

"Let's go." Party Girl said and they proceeded further into the neighborhood.

While entering an apartment complex, a Licker pounced from the ceiling, landed behind the group and hissed. Nobody showed signs of heavy panicking because it was just one Licker monster against them, it was completely outnumbered.

"Just go. I'll catch up with you." Willow told her teammates, leaving them dumbfounded of her wish to handle the creature alone. But they didn't object and did as she said by running up a stairway that lead to the building's rooftop.

Willow was on her own against the skinless beast.

She aimed her rifle weapon at the target, but before she could fire, the Licker used its tongue to knock the gun out of her hands and she proceeded to switch to her handgun. But she didn't have time to use it because the Licker suddenly made a pouncing advance at the Echo Six agent.

It missed her when she skidded across a wall and made a gash in its back leg with her combat knife which she withdrew at the last minute.

The monster's actions knocked over a table holding a flower pot and caused said object to topple over and shatter on the creature's exposed brain.

It screeched angrily from the assault and this granted Willow precious seconds to raised her handgun and shoot the Licker until her gun's ammo was used up. The Licker was still alive, though.

The Licker lashed its appendage at Willow again and, ready for it, she grabbed it with one hand and, despite her upcoming actions being dangerous, allowed herself to be wrapped up by the tongue. But as the Licker prepared to pull her toward itself, the Native American woman turned the tables by reversing her enemy's actions and twirled around in the air with its tongue still touching her and yanked the Licker to her path and when both foes were within close proximity of one another, Willow plunged her knife deeply into the Licker's chest and into its heart organ.

The creature squirmed around on the ground, squealed and died within seconds. Willow gathered herself for a brief moment to study herself for any injuries or cuts which she didn't find and ran off to rendezvous with the rest of Echo Six.

Several minutes later, the Echo Six members reached another deserted street/intersection that, as of now, wasn't so deserted anymore because up ahead, a man dressed in an R.P.D. uniform, indicating his status as a member of the Raccoon City Police Department, was seen running from some kind of danger.

"Guys, we got a live one!" Party Girl said after observing the unnamed survivor.

The cop saw them and suddenly tripped over a steel pipe and fell down.

Before Echo Six could go and help him, they saw five more people catching up to the man. They were three women and two men and they were dressed in uniforms that were similar to the U.S.S., but their appearances were slightly different.

"Scratch that. Make it live _ones_." Party Girl corrected herself.

One of the mystery soldiers, a woman wearing a blue-shaded glowing mask that exposed the upper half of her face, walked ahead of her own teammates, kicked the police officer down as he was trying to get up and pinned him down with her foot.

For a moment, no one on both sides moved except Dee-Ay who cautiously walked toward the unknown soldiers in black with his assault rifle raised at them.

"Hey! This is a quarantine zone! Identify yourselves!" he demanded them.

As he kept moving, he heard a sudden cocking of a loaded weapon next to him.

"Don't take another step!" said an unseen, sinister voice.

Without moving his head, Dee-Ay saw something starting to turn visible beside him. It was a man wearing a gas mask on his face and a hood was draped over his head. The stranger was equipped with the same cloaking technology Willow had and he was holding Dee-Ay at gunpoint with an assault rifle and it was aimed at the side of his head.

Dee-Ay had no choice but to do as the gunman ordered much to his distaste.

_Son of a bitch!_ The Echo Six leader thought upon falling prey to the ambush.

Seeing that made everyone within Echo Six realize that these mysterious people carried abilities and technology similar to their own, the person keeping their leader at bay was one such example.

Dee-Ay was starting to get the feeling that these people posed a higher threat than the U.S.S. soldiers they've killed during their stay in the city. They were going to be proven correct in a moment.

The woman with the blue mask glared at Echo Six and then down at the injured and exhausted cop. She then raised her own gun to the man's head and killed him execution-style without any remorse.

Seeing the officer's death at the woman's hands made Dee-Ay suddenly turn and attack the masked gunman by knocking his assault rifle away and he performed a sweep kick on him.

Both men engaged one another in a quick and dangerous street brawl that ended briefly when Dee-Ay was kicked away by the masked man who then turned invisible again thanks to his own cloaking technology to prevent any harm to him by Echo Six.

"Kill them all!" said the woman in the blue mask and she and her comrades raised their weapons and opened fire on Echo Six.

The Echo Six troops dashed for cover and prepared for battle.

* * *

**Now for the fight between Echo Six and Wolfpack . . .**

**Just to be clear, some of the chapter's scenes, lines and eventual battle are all borrowed from ORC's "Triple Impact Trailer".**

* * *

Dee-Ay quickly dove behind a fancy vehicle that looked like a street racing car with blue and white paint stripes. Harley dove behind a big rig truck and Party Girl, Tweed, Shona and Willow ducked behind the safety of a yellow car.

"Who the hell are these guys?" Harley shouted. They were unaware that their new enemies were Umbrella's deadly Wolfpack unit and they were not going to be very simple to take down like regular U.S.S. soldiers. Like Echo Six, these people were very skilled mercenaries.

"Let me ask them!" Tweed said in a joking and sarcastic manner and she stood up and ran out of her hiding spot and fired her LMG at the opposing group.

The Wolfpack team also ran for cover from the English woman's line of fire, but they also ran toward them at the same time.

One of the bullets from Tweed's weapon of choice struck Vector's body armor a few times, that sparking with his cloaking mode and allowed his form to be somewhat exposed and he was immediately yanked down behind a vehicle by Lupo.

Reloading his weapon, Vector crouched up a little and fired two quick bursts and ducked again. He barely missed a shot that burst through one of the windows of the car he and Lupo hid behind.

Spectre and Beltway, who were both crouched behind a taxi cab, both rose up and shot at Echo Six. Beltway missed hitting Tweed just as she stopped shooting and ran for the big rig Harley stood near.

Dee-Ay crawled near the far end of his hiding place, rose his assault rifle above the car's hood and engine location and fired randomly without seeing whom he was trying to hit.

Beltway and Spectre, the ones he was shooting at the whole time unknowingly, returned the gesture.

Beltway grunted after getting shot in the shoulder by one of Dee-Ay's stray bullets and he crouched back behind the cab.

"Son of a bitch!" Beltway groaned and he took out a frag grenade from his vest pouch and pulled its pin.

"Right back at ya, motherfucker!" he shouted and hurled his grenade at the Echo Six leader.

The grenade landed underneath Dee-Ay's car spot and, upon hearing the sound of it landing near, Dee-Ay crouched down further to inspect it and his eyes went wide with fear and panic after discovering the grenade.

"Shit!" he yelled and scrambled to his feet and started running.

The grenade exploded and so did the vehicle. The combined mass explosion blew Dee-Ay off his feet wildly and he fell on his back hard.

The car, now in flames, hovered in the air and began its descent back down. It crashed behind Dee-Ay and this created a massive ringing noise in his ears. All sounds around him were muted except the aforementioned ringing noise.

What he was experiencing right now was a psychological issue known as "shell-shock". It was a reaction to sudden trauma and/or vicious explosions during life-and death situations. It was also called "Combat Stress Reaction" and "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" to some. Military members were common victims to this problem during and after a war conflict, but sometimes non-military people like civilians were just as vulnerable to it as well if they survived grisly and dangerous encounters with serious criminals and other life-threatening times.

Dee-Ay clutched at the side of his head with one hand, trying desperately to shake off the shell shock effect clouding his mind.

He slowly cocked his head upward and saw, with blurry vision, Party Girl shouting and gesturing at him to quickly seek shelter with her behind her spot, but he couldn't exactly understand a single word she said because of his temporary deafness.

A spray of gunfire forced her to retreat to safety. Luckily, he didn't get hit by the gunfire.

However, as Dee-Ay struggled to return his mind to reality in order to help his squad, he saw a moving, flickering shadow in front of him on the ground and he turned around and saw not a Wolfpack soldier as he assumed, but a staggering, hungry zombie that was closing in on him!

Finally shaking off the shell shock effects, Dee-Ay came to his senses in time and punched the zombie away before it could touch him.

Spectre, noticing Dee-Ay running, prepared to shoot him, but Dee-Ay saw him and, thinking fast, he grabbed at the same zombie he just hit and used it as a human (or zombie) shield to protect himself from Spectre's incoming attack.

Not that he liked was he was doing now, but Dee-Ay figured that it was a good thing his means of protection was undead otherwise he'd feel incredibly guilty for using it as a shield were it a human.

The zombie took several of Spectre's shots meant for Dee-Ay and was dragged along by the Echo Six team leader as he returned fire on the Russian soldier using only one hand.

After absorbing so much damage, the zombie outlived its useless for a shield and Dee-Ay discarded the dead creature and was free to use his rifle again with both hands and took cover with Party Girl and Harley.

"Okay! We need to flag these guys, now!" Dee-Ay told them.

Before any suggests on doing that could be given, a crimson colored device was seen landing next to them and it released a reddish smoke fog that not only confused the group when they felt no pain from being exposed to the chemical, but it also began to draw the attention of some nearby zombie creatures that were now honing in on their position. The chemical bomb came from one of Wolfpack's members, Four Eyes.

Shona saw what was happening and had to inform his affected friends since he carried the same equipment as Four Eyes.

"It's a pheromone! It attracts them!" he said as he then defended himself from the zombie mob.

Party girl stood by and fired her sniper rifle at some of the approaching zombies and at the Wolfpack troops who walked toward them unharmed and they too got their share of zombie kills themselves.

Willow fatally knifed two zombies in their necks and viciously broke the neck of a third zombie that almost bit her.

Lupo and Four Eyes kept walking and shooting everywhere and Spectre separated from them to handle more zombies nearby.

Four Eyes then noticed a strong signature coming from her wrist device. She glanced at it with a puzzled look and, upon immediate recognition of it, she informed Lupo.

"We've got another T-103 approaching!" the Asian virologist said and the two women prepared for what was to come.

Lupo cursed in French from knowing that they were going to have to confront another one of Umbrella's renegade Tyrant. She hoped that the creature was on their side this time unlike the previous Tyrants they had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting, though another part of her guessed that it was far from being true.

Shaking noises were heard from somewhere not too far from the battle. A car was then seen flying across the air and toward the two rival teams who stopped attacking each other and looked in awe and nervousness.

The car skidded across the ground, destroying a street light pole and two cars before crashing beside the gas station's price sign.

The sign flickered and sparked until it fell to the ground and both faction groups were forced to step back as the sign crashed.

Lupo narrowly avoided being crushed by the sign by leaping away and was on the floor soon after. She got up, brushed herself off and started looking around for the Tyrant.

She heard a low, menacing growl behind her and she slowly turned her head and spotted the giant T-103 creature standing six feet near her.

Don't you dare turn on us! she thought as she and the monster had a short stare-down against one another.

The Tyrant was shown to be recovering from throwing that car a few seconds ago and was studying his surroundings for a moment, trying to decide which of the two groups of soldiers to attack first. His evil-looking eyes fell on Lupo and he growled again, giving the French soldier a hint as to who was going to be the first to endure his destructive wrath which was proven true when the Tyrant started moving toward her!

"Aw, shit!" she yelled and fired her weapon at the towering beast which swatted a zombie out of his way.

She dodged a couple of the monster's fist attacks, but was caught soon enough and the Tyrant flung her hard.

Dee-Ay flipped a zombie over on top of a car hood and bashed his head in with the butt of his rifle gun. He turned and saw Lupo collide with the same car he stood by.

The crash looked and felt three times as hard and the Wolfpack leader groaned deeply and mentally struggled to stay conscious.

Dee-Ay shrugged it off and resumed with his zombie-killing spree.

Elsewhere around, Harley and the German soldier Bertha fought each other. Bertha used her machete weapon and Harley used his gun as his only means of defense since his knife wasn't exactly the right size to take on Bertha's weapon of choice.

Harley was kicked in the stomach and Bertha swung her blade at him. The former outlaw deflected her attack with his gun and smacked her in the face with it.

Because of her mask, Bertha was less affected by the striking blow, but that didn't stop Harley from grasping her shoulder and ramming her into the side of the rig truck head-first.

"Take that, bitch!" he taunted.

Bertha quickly recovered from the attack and continued lunging at the Echo Six soldier with her blade and missed again.

Meanwhile, Beltway grabbed hold of a zombie by the back of its neck, stuffed a grenade in its diseased, rotting mouth, pulled the pin and shoved the creature away. In a matter of seconds, the grenade detonated and blew the zombie's head and upper body to pieces.

_How's _that_ for an entree, fuck face?_ he thought darkly. He didn't flinch one bit from the blast, even when some of the creature's blood and other remains splashed on him.

Tweed and Dee-Ay mowed down extra virus zombies and when they finished for now, they turned around and saw the large T-103 hoist a car above his head with such tremendous strength like some modern-day Hercules.

Stunned but still focused, the two Echo Six soldiers shot at the Tyrant together to get him to drop the vehicle, but their efforts were futile.

Dee-Ay's gun became empty and rather than reload, he just stood where he was and stared at the super strong creature with a shocked expression in his eyes and on his face.

"Holy crap!" he said as the powerful B.O.W. proceeded to toss the car directly at him.

"Look out!" Tweed shouted.

Dee-Ay was about to evade the incoming throw when all of a sudden, the vehicle was bisected by an unseen force. The severed halves of the vehicle fell separately and Dee-Ay was spared from any harm whatsoever.

He looked back at Tweed and she just shrugged her shoulders and had a puzzled look on her exhausted face. She was just as baffled by this mysterious event as he was.

The Tyrant was also curious of what happened, but then his look of curiosity became an expression of surprising pain when he was shoved back hard by something invisible and powerful. He grew angry and tried to fend off whatever was assaulting him.

Dee-Ay glanced at this and thought that the Tyrant was going crazy. To him, the monster looked as if he were fighting a small insect or some kind of invisible being like a ghost since he was swinging his large fists everywhere at nothing while receiving physical damage from the unseen and unknown force.

He glanced at the other members of his team who were still occupied with the B.O.W.s and the U.S.S. group. The Wolfpack unit did not carry any gadgets or weapons that were capable of cutting through vehicles or anything large of that sort. Willow, who had cloaking technology, was far away dealing with her own problems with the creatures and with Four Eyes, so she could not have been the invisible perpetrator attacking the behemoth creature.

Dee-Ay stared at Lupo who was still incapacitated after her fierce impact she endured. She coughed and struggled to stand up. Dee-Ay knew Wolfpack would never save them like that, they were trying to kill Echo Six for crying out loud!

With the Tyrant distracted for now and not caring what was causing it, Tweed immediately rushed to Dee-Ay and asked if he was alright and he said yes.

The Tyrant growled angrily and decided to just charge at the two people, not caring about whatever was hurting him.

Before the Tyrant could even take a step, a shot rang out and struck the creature in the face. He grunted in pain and covered his face with one hand in disorientation.

Dee-Ay and Tweed turned their heads to figure out who fired the shot. Their fellow Echo Six comrades were busy as previously mentioned, so it wasn't them. Wolfpack didn't do it either.

Just then, something surprising and very unexpected happened to the T-103. The mighty creature let out a loud, pained groan when one of his arms was suddenly severed and then later, he had apparently been injured by what looked like an impalement action that entered through his chest and exited out the opposite end. The center of his green trench coat had a large slit mark forming and it was glowing hot. It were as if the Tyrant was stabbed by an invisible knife, sword or something else. Drops of red blood could be seen leaking out of the injury.

"What the hell's going on here?" Dee-Ay asked. His British partner had no clue either. Although grateful to have been saved from being crushed lethally by the hurled car, Dee-Ay was still puzzled and a bit frightened by what he was seeing. Willow and Vector were the only ones with the power to cloak themselves, but they were too occupied by the gunfight going on to battle the creature, so apparently that meant that someone or something else had the same ability as those two did and it just did a seemingly lethal number on the T-103 monster.

He wondered if this new unseen force was a friend or a foe and if it would target his team and himself, the Wolfpack soldiers or both after it was finished with the Tyrant? The Echo Six front man feared the worst.

After that, additional shots were heard and Dee-Ay turned his head and spotted a group of people charging into the field, two women and one man. They were dressed in military uniforms, or at least that is what Dee-Ay figured. Everyone else on both sides saw them and wondered who they were and what their purpose was.

* * *

**Now that the shipwrecked crew have finally found Wolfpack and Echo Six locked in battle, it looks like that crossover fight you've all been itching to see is about to happen.**

**But before I get to that, first I will show you what they did before finding Wolfpack and Echo Six.**

**A note here: As of this chapter, the three Elites will have the Promethean vision mode as seen in Halo 4. Remember, this story was published a couple of years before Halo 4's release and since the Halo characters here come from decades after the events of Halo 3, I figured, why not use it? After all, times have changed since the Master Chief and the Arbiter were last seen(in this version) and presumably UNSC, Covenant and Brute technology. **

**Yes, I know Halo 4 happens 4 years after Halo 3 but, as I said, I started writing this before Halo 4 and as of now, I don't wanna re-write everything again. It was grueling and once was enough. I hope you all understand. Hell, spending a whole year working on this chapter was grueling!**

**But to help keep up with the advancing timeline and with the Elites' new vision modes, I and/or the Halo characters may mention things that have happened in Halo 4 here and in future chapters such as the Storm Covenant, the Prometheans, the Spartan Ops events, the Requiem planet and probably the Didact.**

**By the way, I am also aware of the upcoming Halo title for the Xbox One system and, as much as I'd like to, I wish to finish this story before the game's release. **

* * *

The city's structures and infected inhabitants blurred past the ship crew as they raced to where ex-S.T.A.R.S. member Jill Valentine and defective U.B.S.C. mercenary Carlos Oliveria were reported to have been seen trying to make an escape attempt via helicopter, a plan that was ultimately and unfortunately botched by the menacing killing machine called "Nemesis", a B.O.W. sent by Umbrella to assassinate every S.T.A.R.S. person in the entire city, both current and former.

During the ride, Alex recollected something in his memory from the document on the Raccoon City crisis about Jill's encounters with the Nemesis monster. He remembered it saying something about her becoming infected with the T-Virus by the Nemesis after one of her encounters with it and that she was saved from mutation and death by Carlos after he sought out a vaccine cure for her.

A chill ran down his spine from suddenly realizing what they were doing. Instead of keeping a safe distance away from extreme danger, especially something as dangerous as the Nemesis, they were all heading toward it. People who did things like this are either skilled, brave warriors of combat or just incredibly stupid, inexperienced and are more likely to earn an early grave if all else fails.

Alex felt like he and his human and alien teammates were both because, after all, they were exploring a virus-polluted 20th century city filled with infected, hungry ravenous freaks of nature craving unlucky survivors and Raccoon City was one, large deathtrap. But nevertheless, they had all agreed to place themselves in peril at anytime, large or small, when he, Raymond, Jamie and Kristine, signed up for the military while the Elites, Kh'rue, Ha'mak, and E'mal were some of the few doing this to help make up for their people's past mistakes in the Human-Covenant War and before that.

Of course, not all Sangheilis co-existed with humanity in the future after the Human-Covenant War's conclusion. Half of their kind were unsatisfied by the outcome of the war and as a result, they broke away from the main body of the then-newly peaceful Covenant and formed their own group called the Covenant Remnant, or as it's known collectively, the "Storm Covenant"; a theocratic, military splinter faction that remains loyal to the Covenant's practice of worshiping the Forerunners despite the Jiralhanae's betrayal of the Sangheilis in the later days of the war and the revelation of the Prophets being liars about the Covenant's "Great Journey" to which the Storm members no longer believe in. While they do resume their allegiance to the Forerunners, most of the members have forsaken the Covenant's original religion after the death of Ord Casto, better known as the High Prophet of Truth. Their most infamous members were Jul 'Mdama, the founder and _de facto_ leader of the group who, like the Storm organization, was disillusioned with the Covenant religion and did not believe in the Great Journey and, unaware to half of his followers, he knew that the Forerunners were not deities and was only interested in acquiring their technology for his purposes, and Gek 'Lhar, 'Mdama's Lieutenant who was known for collecting dog tags off dead humans as battle trophies like a game hunter, some of which belonged to Spartans. The Storm Covenant was, and still is, classified as more of a terrorist organization and/or a religious cult as opposed to a full-fledged empire of the original Covenant.

Storm Sangheilis were just as vicious and serious as the Elites who fought and died for the beliefs the Separatists formerly followed. They remained with their choice from the start and refuse to be reasoned with. Their actions against humans upon their formation violated the ceasefire treaty among the two races, which was startling at first. Most human soldiers who fought against these Storm Covenant members perished rather quickly due to being caught off-guard by their sudden actions when the faction was new.

But during those dark times, the allied relations between Sangheilis and humanity was not entirely lost as some believed. Those who remained loyal to the Covenant Separatist group still sided with humanity and cooperated with the UNSC in battling their own kind whenever trouble arouse from them. The Separatist and Remnant sides view each other as traitors to their causes and things have not gone well with the Sangheili race since the Storm movement was born and the Separatists and Remnants have been at each other's throats for years. They were like the Union and Confederate factions from the American Civil War days.

Ever since Thel 'Vadam vanished after the war's climax, the Separatists sometimes dedicated their battles and victories to him since he helped co-found, and was one of the first of, the Separatist faction. The other early members/founders alongside him were Rtas 'Vadum and Xytan 'Jar Wattinree, a living legend among the Sangheili people who died prior to the human/Elite alliance.

There were a few ways to tell the two warring sides apart. One way was that Separatist members don the "Mark Of Shame" upon their armor and uniforms, the same marking that Thel 'Vadam was branded with by the former Jiralhanae leader Tartarus as a penalty for the destruction of the first Halo ring by John-117, a.k.a. the Master Chief, while those who serve in the Storm faction avoid the symbol for they still view it as treacherous and dishonorable. Separatists however view the mark as a tribute to Rtas, Thel and Xytan. E'mal, Ha'mak and Kh'rue are among the Elites from the downed ship who are wearing the Mark Of Shame symbol on their armor suits right now.

The other difference was that Storm Sangheilis wear armor and combat harnesses that cover less of their skin and revealed their arms and hands with the exception of missions that take place outside their ships in the airless vacuum of space for obvious reasons. This was because of the fact that the original Covenant were previously dependent on the Prophets for weapons and equipment to destroy their enemies. But after the war and the death of Truth, Regret and Mercy, they lacked their own resources compared to the Covenant Empire and thus, most of their armor and weaponry were and still are, scavenged and non-military leftovers from the old days of the Human-Covenant War while the Separatists wore freshly-built armor and used better weapons.

This wasn't always the case in their early days because they too suffered the same similarities as the evil Remnants and were unable to properly repair or replace whatever ships that were lost or damaged in battle. But over the years they, and some humans, studied and remodeled classic Covenant technology to what they currently use. It were as if the Storm members were poor and were forced to resort to using old hand-me-downs while the Separatists were wealthy and could afford new suits and gear. Sometimes, the Remnant members would steal human military technology and weapons to increase their firepower and their chances of victory over their enemies.

Back to matters at hand, a hunter tried to pounce Raymond off his position on the Warthog, but it missed my mere inches and gave chase.

Four Crimson Head zombies spotted the group of aliens and humans and mimicked the Hunter's actions. Both of them were killed by Kristine and Raymond.

While driving, they each heard sudden gunfire ripping through the air. Each person guessed that they were traveling in the right direction and their guesses were correct when they spotted a clock tower, or what was left of it, far away after going past an old movie theater that was blocking the tower from their views.

"Guys, we're getting close! That Jill Valentine chick should be going toe to toe with that big-ass Nemesis guy right about now!" Alex said.

The roar they heard before from the junkyard area was heard again and it belonged to the Nemesis along with additional gunshots and several explosions, only they were smaller this time.

As they drove forward to witness the situation, Alex's lost control of his Mongoose vehicle during a quick turn and he wound up slamming his vehicle into an unused motorcycle and he flew in the air and crashed onto the cold, hard pavement. His assault rifle flew off his person and landed near a garbage can.

For a moment, all he said was "OW!" The sudden crash landing knocked the air out of him and all he could do was panic and try calming himself down.

"Man down!" Raymond yelled after seeing what happened and they stopped to go back and help their teammate.

Alex started getting up, rubbing his left shoulder in hopes he didn't break or pop it after feeling tense pain. Then he saw four Cerberus dogs growling and heading his way.

_Oh, great! Where's dog treats when you need 'em!_ he thought and quickly got on the defensive with his pistol sidearm while running.

He killed one dog by himself while the rest of the beastly canines were shot and killed by the group.

"You okay, Alex?" Kristine asked when she approached him..

Alex gripped his bruised shoulder and responded, "Yeah. Nothing busted." After reclaiming his gun, he went back for his Mongoose and inspected it for any damage. All he found was only a slight dent in the front and hopped on the seat, guided it away from the obstacle that made contact with his ride and followed the team as if nothing had occurred.

At last, the crew made it to their destination, the Clock Tower gardens and the Saint Michael Clock Tower itself, but it was in ruins. The group dismounted from their vehicles and gave themselves a tour of the area.

The remains of the destroyed air vehicle they saw and heard about from the radio transmission earlier was a helicopter. The area was a mess. Statue pieces were scattered all over the ground, plants and flowers were crushed and laid in ashes from being burned for too long.

Flames engulfed and consumed the wreckage and the helicopter's pilot was nowhere to be found. Whoever it was may have either escaped the crash site or was trapped in the chopper after crashing and died via incineration or from whatever injuries he or she might have sustained from the impact.

There was also wreckage of a street tram car nearby from behind the tower. Alex saw that and remembered the document saying that it was used to transport Carlos and Jill to this vast area after another scuffle with the Nemesis that cost the life of someone who sacrificed himself to allow the two to flee. That deceased person's name was Mikhali Victor who, like Carlos, was probably unaware of their group's true purpose of being sent into the city and thought they were rescuing innocent people from the creature invasion.

His final deed was honorable at first, then it turned vain-like as the Nemesis survived the man's kamikaze-like act, then eventually honorable again as Jill and Carlos would kill the Nemesis creature and escape the city's soon-to-be destruction by the nuclear strike.

Jamie surveyed the helicopter wreckage and figured that the second option of the pilot's fate was very much a possibility judging from the scene. If she were operating a flying vehicle, crashed it and survived, she would not be up and about immediately. A serious impact like the one before her would knock the wind and energy out of anyone, making one too physically weakened to escape as soon as possible. It happened to her back on FOREVER when it made a not-so-comfortable landing outside of the town. The effects made her literally sick.

A blotch of blood was seen near a bed of dead flowers and Kristine inspected it. The blood appeared to be dry and fresh, she couldn't tell whether it was human, animal or even undead. All she knew was that everything in Raccoon City, alive, dead or zombified, bled red blood when wounded, except for Ivies, other plant-type creatures and the three Sangheilis who bled purplish blood when wounded.

Used bullet casings were scattered everywhere on the filthy ground. They were mostly machine gun rounds, a few shotgun shell casings, pistol bullets and discarded clips and bullets that looked as if they came from s sniper rifle. The battle between Carlos, Jill and the Nemesis being had occurred here and the crew team had just missed it.

Judging from the scattered ammo mess, it looked like the aforementioned combatants were not the only ones that were here earlier. Whomever else was present before couldn't have gone too far. It could have been the U.S.S. or the Spec Ops forces that fired these discarded rounds besides Jill and Carlos or even the beast itself for that matter. It did have a chaingun in its possession, though.

What made the scene more intensifying was that a gate door leading in and out of the garden was wrecked completely. The Nemesis was suspected by Alex to have been responsible for causing that since he knew all about the creature. Perhaps the fight was taken elsewhere. The Elites tried getting a lock on the Nemesis's signature with their radar systems, but couldn't find the monster. It had to be far away by now and none of the crew members had a clue of where to start looking, not that they had the time to do so anyway.

From far away, the marines and alien soldiers saw zombies slugging around. Few laid dead, already having been killed.

"Hey, isn't this Valentine person supposed to be here somewhere?" Kristine asked Alex who was busy looking around.

"She should. See, after her scuffle with the Nemesis, she and Carlos holed themselves up somewhere safe. My guess is they're in that building behind you." he said and pointed directly behind Kristine and she turned around and saw what he meant. It looked like a Medieval gothic church.

He was asked about what Carlos and Jill looked like in order to better identify them if they ever had the chance of running into them and Alex hesitated at the question. He forgot to mention that the Raccoon City document never exactly contained any images of the people who lived or died in the zombie mayhem. It explained the stories and their testimonies in words only. Therefore, finding Jill, Carlos or the Nemesis monster was going to be tough without knowing what they looked like, although the latter shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Alex told them about his problem and they became slightly disappointed. But one thing they did know was that Carlos and Jill were still alive and that was all they could count on.

Raymond saw the tower building too and advised everyone to head inside. As a precaution, the Elites activated their camouflage modes in case they happen to meet more U.S.S. people.

As they neared the building, the Elites' radar systems were detecting some life forms coming from inside, all of which were enemy signals.

Raymond stood in front of one of the building's entrance doors and pulled at the handles. The door didn't open and so he instructed one of the Elite soldiers to break down the door on the count of three. Ha'mak volunteered to do it and moved up front.

The signal was given quietly and Ha'mak cut the door's middle with his sword and strongly shoved himself against the door and it bust open and collapsed to the floor of the building. The group entered quickly with their weapons raised for a confrontation with any monsters or Umbrella soldiers.

Zombies were found roaming the seemingly abandoned clock building and they were dispatched in under a minute.

The building didn't look much from outside, but inside, it was built with so many rooms and balcony floors. The main room looked like an information center. Some of the structures were destroyed, caused by either the Nemesis, the downed helicopter or something else.

A stairway leading up was found, but that was blocked off by ruins. Of course, that, nor any of the wreckage, would stop the group's search for Carlos and Jill.

In hopes of accomplishing that task faster, the team split up into two halves: the UNSC marines headed in one direction and the Sangheilis took another route with the latter going into their stealth modes, not to use against any monsters since that wouldn't work anyway, but against any U.S.S. soldiers they assumed were around.

Before leaving to start looking, they all made a last minute agreement that they were to withhold all personal information about themselves from Jill and/or Carlos when they were found and the only thing they were required to say to them if asked was that they are military and that they were on their side and nothing more until further notice and they complied.

The marines entered a room that had an exquisite grand piano and a few more dead zombie corpses.

Spending what time they had of seeking out Jill and Carlos and killing more zombies that roamed free, the two survivors or any other living people were found and they decided to move their search elsewhere.

Raymond was about to radio the Elites for any luck on their behalf when Jamie spotted a place inside of a narrow hallway and notified Raymond. A sign was on the door that read "Tower Chapel".

Lacking the Elites' motion tracking radar technology, the group chose to enter cautiously, hoping that the people they sought out, or at least someone who has no ties with Umbrella, were barricaded inside.

Jamie considered that the Elites remain out of Carlos' sight by either staying outside or cloaking themselves upon entry because she came to the realization that modern people were not ready for the existence of living extraterrestrial life forms such as them and felt that their alien appearances and weapons may disturb Carlos and/or Jill even with their armor and helmets on. Seeing that her idea was very much true, the Elites cloaked their forms.

E'mal insisted that he stay outside and guard the door for any enemies and everybody but him entered the chapel.

They all discovered, right in that small place of worship, a man dressed in a green fatigue shirt with a black tactical vest over it with the Umbrella logo displayed on the back and a young woman wearing regular, civilian clothing. The man's appearance reminded the marines of the U.S.S., but he was with a different side from Umbrella.

The woman had a grotesque-looking injury on her shoulder which was bleeding badly and she appeared to be unconscious.

From what he said back outside and although he admitted to never seeing pictures of them in the document, Alex correctly identified the military man as Carlos Oliveria and the woman as Jill Valentine. Her wound, as he saw, was caused during her scuffle with the creature known as the Nemesis and that meant that she was now an infectee of the deadly T-virus, just as he read about.

Seeing them coming in, Carlos instantly grabbed his weapon, an M4A1 assault rifle, and aimed it at the group in defense of himself and his downed friend.

"Halt! Who are you people?" he demanded coldly. The man looked very determined to safeguard the injured woman and saw the UNSC marines as intruders. While invisible, the Elites stood still and remained quiet.

Sensing Carlos' view of them, Raymond ordered the others to stand down even though they never actually did raise their own weapons at the man and he attempted to reason with the surprised person.

"Relax. We mean you and your friend no harm." he said.

Hesitation washed over Carlos for a brief moment, he was unsure to take Raymond's word for it.

"Are you guys supposed to be U.S. military or something? Because you sure don't look the part." Carlos said upon noticing their battle gear and uniforms.

"Yeah, we are." Jamie answered. Technically, they were, but just not the kind Carlos believed them to be. For now, as agreed from before, the group kept their true identities hidden until later.

Carlos remained quiet for a while as he mentally struggled to believe them. He was just on edge from everything that had transpired all over the city and the UNSC members didn't blame him.

At last, he broke the silence with a quick "Okay" and lowered his rifle.

Staring at the non-responsive woman, Alex couldn't help but say, "Hey, that's Jill Valentine, one of the survivors of the Arklay Mountains mansion incident!" He already knew who Jill was, but he just felt like saying it."

"How do you know about her?" Carlos asked him suspiciously.

Thinking up a little white lie to conceal his real answer, Alex said, "I . . . heard about her story of her night at that mansion long ago. We all did."

Carlos accepted his answer, much to Alex's relief. He too knew about Jill's terrifying night at that now-demolished estate/laboratory. Nobody took them seriously and look what happened.

He looked back at Jill quietly.

"I suppose all that racket I heard out there came from you guys, right?" he asked and they nodded.

Despite having just met the marines, Carlos felt that he needed to share with them his reason for being here.

"I don't know if I should be saying this to you since we just met, but if you're wondering why we're here, it's because she", he pointed his to Jill as he spoke, "is being chased by a large, ugly creature that's hellbent on killing her and, not too long ago, it stabbed her with one of its tentacles and infected her with something called the 'T-virus'. It's a biological substance that caused the entire city to become what it is now. It turns every person and animal that gets infected with it into horrible, hungry creatures. I brought her in here a while ago with some help from a group of people who came and helped in battling the monster. They call themselves 'Echo Six', I think." he told them.

The marines and cloaked Elites now knew about the used bullets back outside and that the Echo Six group, one of the main factions Alex told about, were just here a while ago.

Because of all the traumatizing dangers Carlos and Jill have been facing, the crew were now determined to help these two people out of Raccoon City first before making their own escape with the means of their downed ship. But they were going to have to do it quickly before the nuke arrived and decimated them and everything else.

Looking back at the unconscious Jill, Carlos was now desperate to rid her of the horrible virus flowing in her veins, but where was he going to find something to cure her? He had no idea of where to even begin looking for that kind of item, he was even doubtful that such a cure even existed. Despite working for Umbrella, he didn't know much about his employers or their true nature. As he said to Jill when they first met, he was just an expendable grunt or mercenary and the people at Umbrella never fully disclosed their activities to him or his U.B.C.S. squadmates who were now either dead or undead. When Jill informed him about the company's nefarious deeds in the past, as well as the mansion disaster which said company was responsible for, he was shocked at realizing that his so-called rescue mission was actually a death trap for him and the U.B.C.S. and that it was a way for Umbrella to use them as test subjects for the B.O.W. invaders.

"I gotta find some way to save her from becoming one of those zombie freaks. But I don't want to leave her alone in here in case she wakes up early. I'm worried that the monster might barge in here and finish her off any time." Carlos stated.

Seeing an opportunity rising, Alex got an idea.

"Well, if you want, we could help you in finding a cure for you and while we're at it, one of our own can stay and guard her until we get back." Alex said and helped himself to one of the chapel's seating arrangements.

Carlos was hesitant at first to allow any of these strangers to stay in the chapel alone with Jill in her condition. He just met them. But on the other hand, he didn't see any Umbrella symbols on their uniforms, so he assumed that they were not with Umbrella. He should know how that felt like since Jill didn't trust him either when he first met her because of his affiliation with Umbrella, but he was able to convince her otherwise through his actions, especially the fight with the Nemesis monster, so he felt that he should do the same with these guys. He seriously despised Umbrella now from what he learned from Jill and vowed to help destroy them forever if he and Jill got out of Raccoon City.

Besides, he figured that if he tried to seek out the vaccine on his own, there was a pretty good chance that he'd get himself killed by the B.O.W.s or the U.S.S.

While not seeing Umbrella symbols on them, he did see their UNSC logos and wondered just what those initials meant. They looked very familiar to the United States Marine Corps.

"When you put it that way, I suppose having company around wouldn't hurt." he said after giving their proposal some thought. He still held some suspicious thoughts about them, though.

"Great. So, is there a hospital or some other type of medical facility with supplies and equipment anywhere nearby?" Jamie asked.

Carlos thought to himself and replied. "Now that I think about it there is: the Raccoon General Hospital. Do any of you know where it is?"

They shook their heads. Even Alex had no idea where the hospital Carlos spoke of was despite his knowledge of Raccoon City's dark history. Like with images of outbreak survivors, the document also never mentioned the whereabouts of Raccoon General Hospital or other certain places like the town's police station and the underground lab entrances. It only stated where he originally obtained Jill's vaccine, but no directions.

"Well, I do. I have a map of it somewhere in my pockets." Carlos said.

He patted his clothes and vest pockets until he found a map of the city and showed it to the marines and they examined it carefully.

"I was thinking," he said, "that perhaps I should stay here and watch over Jill while you get the vaccine instead. As I said, I don't want to leave her here by herself and risk that thing coming and killing her. I hope it's not too much trouble." He kinda felt guilty for saying that.

"That works too, I suppose." Jamie said and the others agreed. They had no problem with Carlos' alternative offer. It would involve battling more B.O.W.s, but it was for Jill's survival.

Alex also remembered the document saying that Carlos didn't acquire the anti-virus vaccine until after Jill awakened, but with them going after the item sooner, he figured that an early start would be best. They'd be saving Carlos the trouble of what he would have originally went through to fetch it before the crew came around to the present.

Before departing, Carlos asked the marines how they knew there was a vaccine available and they simply told him that they just knew and vowed to find it in time.

With the intent on fetching the anti-virus vaccine to gain Carlos' approval on them, they all evacuated the chapel. Carlos wished them luck on their quest and returned to guarding Jill.

"Looks like it's just us again, Jill." he said to Jill's comatose form and the latter said nothing back obviously. He placed his gun down and looked around. The place seemed nice. He felt some peace and calmness while inside and it sure beat being outside with the creatures by a long shot. He wasn't sure that sending those new people out there to fetch a cure for Jill was a good idea, but other than to keep Jill company, he also didn't want to venture back out there in the dark streets for quite some time. The monsters really gave him a deep scare when he first saw them in person. He knew he had to return to fighting them eventually, but for now, he wanted to just stay and relax for a while.

Meanwhile back outside the chapel, the ship crew led themselves through the entire building, keeping an eye out for any B.O.W. monsters. The Elites had recently rejoined the marines on their quest and were told that Carlos entrusted them to find Jill's antidote and bring it back.

They came into a narrow hallway and its spacing forced the group members to move through one at a time. The Elites took up more space than the humans because of their bulkiness.

A couple of dead bodies were seen sealed up behind a webbing substance separately. The appearance of the webs made them figure that mutant arachnid creatures were responsible for it. The thought alone made Kristine, Jamie and Alex shutter. Raymond was unafraid of spiders and the Elites had no idea what spiders were.

The good news was that they were proven wrong about there being spiders around. But the bad news was that they were met by strange new monsters that bore similarities to the Licker species.

These new opponents were known to Umbrella employees as Brain Suckers and they had highly grotesque appearances. Seeing them gave Alex and Jamie the chills.

Unwilling to wait another second, Kristine was the first to raise her assault rifle first and shoot the monsters who then ignited their killing instincts. The rest soon joined in the slaughtering of the beasts.

The marines fired their own weapons while the aliens used their plasma blade weapons. Their weapons melted the flesh and bones of the Brain Suckers and killing them slowly and quite painfully.

The last of the Brain Sucker enemies pounced on Raymond but was thwarted by Ha'mak when he grabbed it in mid-air and slammed the foul menace against the wall. It tried to force its vile mouth on his masked head, but it was thrown off by the alien, creating a dent in the wooden floor. Ha'mak then painfully tore off one of its legs with his hands and jammed the severed appendage right into its own head in the style of swinging a golf club, killing it.

"Thanks for the save, Ha'mak." Raymond said and Ha'mak just nodded silently, wiping his hands of a few blood drops from his attack.

"Holy crap, that was pretty gutsy of you to pull off! I'd never have the balls to even touch those things!" Alex exclaimed to the large alien who still stayed quiet and they continued walking.

They finally made it outside an alley and were on a deserted street where they faced more zombies walking around. The walking dead were killed by the Elites while the marines watched.

Jamie observed the map Carlos gave them, looking for the Raccoon City hospital's location.

Passing by a corner, they all saw the place they were looking for on the opposite side of where they all stood, the hospital known as "Raccoon General". The UNSC and Covenant Separatist crew marched toward it and entered. Since the hospital's entrance doors malfunctioned as they operated via electrical means, the group had to force their way in by simply breaking in.

The inside of the hospital was a utter pigsty. Chairs, desks, scattered books, files, telephones, stains of blood and vomit and corpses were everywhere as if a twister blew in.

"Uhhh . . ."

That now-similar groaning sound came from near the main room's reception counter on their far right and pretty soon, the groaning zombie was discovered shuffle walking its way from the booth and toward the group.

Before anyone got a chance to kill it, something big suddenly decapitated the zombie from behind and the slain walker fell to the marble ground. The killer was another Hunter creature and it roared viciously at them after completing its kill and seeing them.

Kh'rue, remembering his own stint against a member of this creature's kind, had an annoyed look on his covered face.

"Great. The ugly bastards are now turning on each other." Jamie said.

"Just like another group of bastards who'll eventually do the same 500 years from now." Alex said softly, his remark being a nod to the Storm Covenant of their era.

The Hunter was joined by another Hunter and the two creatures began their attack.

Both monsters were intercepted by Kh'rue and E'mal who activated their energy daggers and swords to fight with.

E'mal tucked one Hunter's head under his left arm and plunged his right dagger seven times into the struggling monster's chest and stomach until it was dead and let the body drop to the floor and Kh'rue hacked his blade deep into the other Hunter's skull with one strike and kicked the creature away.

Seeing the door leading into the reception room, Raymond went in first. He hoped there was at least one person still breathing or a clue that would offer him a lead to the anti-virus.

The new room was small in size, making it challenging for the Sangheilis to move about without knocking themselves into anything or anyone. Paper documents, a few desks and a large box were all that was there.

Raymond opened the box and found a simple box of handgun ammunition and decided that he keep the box to take back to the chapel. He was intending on giving the ammo to Jill or Carlos. The bullets in that box weren't meant for the marines' and Elites' weapons anyway.

They left the room and entered a new area that was like the previous one and the main lobby combined, only it was slightly bigger and filled with storage lockers as well as an elevator. A collection of dead people were seen laying around. Getting a bad feeling about the corpses returning to life as zombies, the space crew quickly smashed and dismembered the heads of the bodies to prevent that from ever happening.

With that crisis averted, the group kept looking around.

Jamie found a book on a couch next to one of the beheaded bodies called "Director's Diary". Hoping it had any information on the vaccine they were here for, she opened its lock and took a glance inside. She disliked snooping into people's private books and rooms and such, but whoever it belonged to last was no use to him or her anyway. All it mentioned was the virus and its symptoms on fresh victims.

It said:

**September 10th: **

**These patients suffer from gangrene and congestion of their blood at first. Then their minds slowly deteriorate. In the end, their is nothing left of their minds. When that happens, even mercy killing seems pointless. After all, they are already dead.**

**This disease is unlike anything I have ever witnessed. Once the patient's mind is gone, they become flesh-hungry monsters and act like wild animals who are on some type of bloodlust.**

**September 18th:**

**Another patient has been admitted to the hospital. He is showing symptoms of the first stages of the disease at this point, but . . . I have not been able to sleep at all these past few days. **

**I refuse to let these patients become "zombies". I am not just an ordinary citizen, I am a doctor. Even if I die, clinical charts will contribute to finding a cure.**

**September 26th:**

**We lost most of the doctors and staff during the battle against the "zombie" patients. It's impossible to maintain the hospital under these conditions. And, I know that it's too late for me. **

**I am beginning to feel that same itchy and hungry desire that all my patients felt.**

**It's too late for me . . .**

That was all it said and Jamie closed the book and put it back where she got it. Apparently, the diary's original owner, most likely a former doctor of the barren hospital, had also succumbed to the dreaded virus and turned into one of the zombies sometime.

Before its head was destroyed by them, Jamie remembered seeing the dead body's neck area having appeared to have been devoured from the inside out. She wondered what kind of creature was able to do that since most of the creatures they battled would normally wound their victims from the outside rather than vice-versa. Perhaps a slug or some other bug-type creature gotten inside the victim orally and gnawed its way out through the neck.

Kristine and Raymond walked to the elevator to see if it was in good working order, Alex, Kh'rue and Ha'mak searched in one spot and E'mal simply stood guard for trouble.

Kh'rue walked over to the lockers to find any useful things. One locker was found open, meaning that someone else was here before and had already searched it. He found a tape recorder and a map with directions for inside of the hospital interior and took them both, getting a feeling that they would at some point come in handy for them.

Their map said that they were on the first floor, not that any of them didn't know that. They hadn't taken any staircases when they got here.

Raymond studied the elevator's button pad and pressed a button, but nothing happened and a red light blinked. He and Kristine were confused by this until they looked closer and saw that it was an electronic lock and they also saw a little sign nearby that mentioned the lock being voice activated.

Eyeing the elevator, Alex asked them to start it up, but Kristine told him about the small problem.

Kh'rue looked at the tape recorder device in his hand and got an idea. He gave it to Kristine, as she had some knowledge of past technology and asked her to make use of the recorder.

Kristine accepted the task and told everyone to stand aside as she inched toward the elevator, held the recorder device close to the voice-activated pad and pressed the recorder's "play" button and the pad's microphone button at the same time.

A male voice came from the recorder was heard and everyone in that room said nothing as it spoke. It sounded like medical instructions for a surgical procedure. Alex was quite disturbed by how the voice sounded. It sounded eerie to him, like it belonged to some mad doctor.

"There also appears to be a slight fracture in his right arm just below the elbow. However . . ."

Before the voice could say anymore, the elevator's voice pad blinked a green light and began humming. Soon, the elevator doors had opened and its lights illuminated.

_Toche'_ Raymond thought.

Entering the elevator for inspection, the group leader eyed the directional button pad and the options for the elevator to travel were 4F and B3, both meaning "4th floor" and "third basement level". There was also an "Open" button though that was self-explanatory.

Thinking it over, Raymond had a feeling that the B3 button was the best place to go first and before pressing it, he asked which of the team members would accompany him. He certainly wasn't going to tackle the basement floor alone. None of them did, at least the human members didn't.

Everyone accepted the task and they started loading themselves into the elevator. But when the three Sangheilis tried to enter, the elevator's emergency light blinked and they figured out the problem: the Elites were too heavy all thanks to their armor and weapons as well as the combined weight of the marines. They had apparently exceeded the elevator's weight limitation. Not only that, their large frames prevented the occupants from making any room for each other much to the marines' embarrassment.

After disbanding from the elevator to lessen the weight limit, Raymond came up with the suggestion that they have at least one side ride the elevator first and the other can go next until all seven survivors were together on whatever floor they'd be traveling to. The marines were to ride together since they were sorta lighter than the Elites.

"Good idea." Kristine said and before using the elevator, everyone exited and allowed one Elite to simply stand inside to test the elevator's weight limit to see if it allowed at least one of them inside without problems. Kh'rue volunteered and walked inside.

The elevator creaked a little from his movements, but the weight light did not blink again, thus proving it safe for their plan.

But before anyone could proceed, Kh'rue stopped them and asked that he ride it down first to check for virus enemies and his request was granted.

"Contact us when you are finished down there or if you request assistance." Ha'mak told him.

The Sangheili nodded in agreement and Raymond activated the B3 button for him and the doors to the elevator sealed shut and took its lone passenger down.

Inside, Kh'rue was silent throughout the ride. Whatever lurked in the upcoming floor he was being taken to, he was unafraid of it.

A minute later, the elevator had recently arrived at its intended destination and the doors started to open.

Kh'rue's motion sensors detected enemy movement from outside the elevator, just as he expected as was his reason for doing this by himself and charged up his energy daggers for combat.

When the doors slid open, a posse of zombies was revealed waiting outside and they walked toward Kh'rue as he made his move on them.

Back above, the waiting group finally received a call from Kh'rue. "I have cleared the surrounding area of infected foes. You may now follow me to my location. I will be waiting."

"Wow. He was gone for about 25 seconds and he's already done his job." Alex remarked.

After that, they summoned the elevator again and in went E'mal, then Ha'mak, and last, the UNSC troops.

Soon, they were all together and Kh'rue was seen standing by a wall, waiting. The walls were painted with the blood of the slain zombies. One corpse had the top half of its head severed off and its half-severed brain was showing.

Alex looked on the right side of the elevator entrance to see some hand trucks and old observation devices. None were of any use.

The group traveled down the hall on the left side, turned a narrow corner and saw a steel door and they entered it.

They were inside a medical lab of some sort and everything was clean and spotless, no monsters were inside. Beakers and flasks were on tables and counters unshattered and untouched, all filled with who knew what.

A wall poster got Kristine's attention and she went to see. It said: **"Extreme caution is needed when handling chemicals."**

_No kidding! Those Umbrella people didn't do that at all and look where it got this poor town._ She thought sarcastically.

An unidentified life form was found on Ha'mak's radar and he proceeded to inform everyone, but he was too late to do that when the sound of a gun clicked nearby and everyone became a target. For a split second, the crew thought that they were dealing with another U.S.S. person.

They quickly got ready to defend themselves and they saw that the gunman was another U.B.C.S. member like Carlos Oliveria and not someone from the U.S.S. It was a man of African/Surinamese descent. A name tag on his uniform said that his name was Tyrell Patrick.

The guy looked like as if someone or a monster beat the crap out of him. His shoulders had blood patches on them, the left side of his face was scarred, one of his eyes was blackened and he was missing a couple of teeth from his mouth, two on the lower side and one on the upper half. A bullet wound was lodged in his side, meaning that he was shot during his mission here in Raccoon.

"I had no idea more guinea pigs were still alive!" he said. Seeing their appearances, Tyrell didn't recognize the group at all.

"Just who the hell are you people? I certainly don't remember seeing you anywhere among the rest of the U.B.C.S. team. Are you from another part of Umbrella?" Tyrell asked, still not taking his gun off them as a precaution. Since he had just seen the Sangheili members, there was no point in them cloaking themselves out of sight now. As long as they didn't remove their helmets and didn't show their alien faces, they would still be taken for large human soldiers.

The group members were confused by his accusations until they realized that, due to his injuries and slight disorientation, the man must be mistaking the crew survivors for modern soldiers from Umbrella. They held their fire, but they were ready to shoot if the man shot at them first.

"Sir, calm down. We're not from Umbrella." Jamie said in an effort to gain the man's trust with them as they were currently doing with Carlos.

"Sometimes it's easy to forget one's loyalties. Just like that traitor!" Tyrell said, holding his side in pain and ignoring what the woman just said.

The crew were confused by his words.

"Someone did this to you? Who was it?" Kristine asked.

During this time, Alex remembered that during the outbreak, there was a traitor among the U.B.C.S. team, a man who would eventually attempt to kill Jill and Carlos as well as claim the lives of the Wolfpack unit from the Umbrella Security Service.

"It was a Russian man with gray hair and an ugly mug!" said the wounded survivor.

"You know what this guy's talking about, Alex?" Raymond whispered to Alex and he couldn't answer immediately because it boggled Alex's mind like a freaking puzzle. as he tried to remember the name of the treacherous person Tyrell was talking about.

_A gray haired Russian with an ugly mug? I know who it is, but I just can't remember his friggin' name! _He thought.

"I can't believe he had the guts to shoot me! That fucking traitor!" Tyrell said, backing up near a wall safe. He reached for its handle to open it, thinking there was something useful inside.

Tyrell's description was starting to sound familiar to Alex. Not only that, but Alex had a strange feeling that something dangerous was about to happen in that very room, something that had to do with the still-unidentifiable person the soldier kept speaking of.

Then at last, it finally came to him instantly!

"You mean Nicholai Ginovaef?" he spit out.

Tyrell was about to ask how he knew about Nicholai when a beeping sound was heard after he had just opened the safe.

The sound intensified and it was soon revealed to be a plastic explosive! It was a trap set up by Nicholai himself!

"Get back!" Raymond shouted and the bomb beeped faster and was about to detonate.

Tyrell was slow to react to the imminent danger and was a millisecond away from death in the upcoming blast when he was yanked to safety by E'mal and the safe went up in flames and smoke, showering E'mal all over.

E'mal's armor and shields sparked and deflected for a moment before recharging. Then everything quieted down.

"You okay, big guy?" Jamie asked E'mal and he simply nodded.

Tyrell was coughing and breathing heavily as he stared at the former trap with wide open eyes. He could have been killed by that and he was too angry at himself for not bothering to think about checking for traps before opening that safe.

"Damn! That was a close call, dude!" Alex said.

Tyrell looked at the UNSC and Separatists and didn't know what to say to them. They had just saved his life.

"You . . . you saved me. That sick fuck Nicholai tried to kill me again and with a bomb too!

After having a chance to calm his nerves, Tyrell had something to ask the marine group, the same question he was about to ask prior to the safe trap.

"How did you know who Nicholai is in the first place?"

"We'll tell you later. Right now, we're here to seek out an antidote for someone who's been infected with the virus that destroyed the city population and we need it pronto before it's too late. Do you have any idea where we can find something like that?" Kristine asked.

Tyrell scoffed at their objective. "Hell if I know. You must be nuts to think that there's a cure for all the crazy zombie shit that's sweeped all over this fucking town! We're all doomed!"

He believed that there was no cure for T-virus infection, as well as no hope for surviving the city-wide plague, but the group ensured him that were was a vaccine hidden somewhere inside the hospital.

Although dumbstruck at their need to find a cure, Tyrell nevertheless agreed to accompany the troops and aliens. He sorta knew his way around the hospital and the group needed a guide to achieve their task faster. Plus, he didn't want to be alone in the hospital after losing many of his other teammates because of Nicholai or because of the creatures.

Before leaving, Tyrell cocked his head from side to side in case more bomb traps were planted nearby. That previous trap really shook him good and put him on high alert.

Tyrell asked if there were any other U.B.C.S. members still alive and he was told of their meeting with Carlos Oliveria. He grew confused about how Carlos had managed to make it this far as most soldiers from the U.B.C.S. had died early upon arrival except Carlos and, as of now, himself.

They all entered another lab room that had tanks filled with water or some liquid that resembled water. Two of those tubes contained creatures that appeared amphibian-like. The unmoving creatures looked like the Hunters, but they looked a little bit smaller in size than those other monsters.

Anxious at their presences at first, the group and the U.B.C.S. man soon realized that the monsters were unmoving and appeared to be in a comatose state. Still, that didn't mean that they wouldn't see the survivors and burst out to attack them.

Of all the tubes in that room, only one was shattered. The B.O.W. that was once there was gone. It must have been another of those amphibian things. It couldn't have gone far, which worried the humans, but not the Elites.

Raymond found a notepad on a desk and picked it up. It was a medical instruction manual. He read it aloud while everyone observed quietly.

**Umbrella Medical Service North America Division Douglas Rover.**

**In order to activate the synthesizer to cultivate the vaccine, please follow the procedure as detailed below:**

**1: Supply enough energy to the system.**

**2: Set the medium base to the device.**

**When the device is ready, you can start mixing the vaccine medium. **

**To mix the vaccine, you will need to control the five levers. This will cause the two gauges to increase or decrease. **

**If you adjust the two gauges so that they stop at the center, the vaccine medium will then be produced automatically.**

That was all it said. It occurred to the group that this report could have been instructions for preparing the T-Virus vaccine that they sought after. Tyrell was impressed of the existence of a possible anti-virus serum and that the crew people were correct about there being such a thing after all.

In need of the document for later, Raymond kept the instructions.

The tank creatures were beginning to worry the survivors. None of them could predict if or when they would awaken and break free from their confinements.

To save them all the trouble of fighting those two, Raymond asked the Elites to dispose of the creatures. They complied and got ready to kill the defenseless creatures on the spot when Alex stopped them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold it!" he yelped and the Elites stopped what they were doing and everyone looked at him.

"What's the matter?" Raymond asked him.

"Some of the tanks here play an important part in making that anti-virus thing for Jill! If we destroy 'em now, the machine won't work and Jill will be totally screwed!" he explained.

"Jill? Who's Jill?" Tyrell asked.

"Jill Valentine. She's with Carlos inside an old chapel. She got infected with the zombie virus a while ago. That's the whole reason why we're here as we said before." Alex told him.

"You mean the same Jill Valentine from the S.T.A.R.S. group from that story about the Arklay mansion?"

"Yep."

Now Tyrell knew whom the vaccine was for.

Alex suggested that they use the machine to get what they needed first and then take out the creatures afterward and they decided to do that.

According to the vaccine instructions, there was to be a synthesizer machine filled with various chemicals for the vaccine somewhere. They looked everywhere and Kristine found a machine that could be the answer. She pointed it out and they walked toward it, cautiously glaring at the sleeping monsters and hoping they wouldn't wake up sooner.

Looking it over, the survivors guessed that it was an electric power supply generator and it was set next to the two cultivation tanks that stored the monsters, proving Alex's point.

They hoped that the machine was still usable otherwise without it, Jill Valentine would be doomed and probably future-history too since Jill is one of the important figures responsible for destroying Umbrella in the future.

Raymond looked at the instructions and did his best to understand it carefully as he wasn't much into the medical and science field.

The first thing that had to be done was to switch on the power supply and Alex helped out by flipping the switch on the front while Raymond read the directions aloud.

The synthesizer complied and two of the nearby tanks with the large creatures started to drain themselves of their water fluid. The water bubbled as it was sucked out of the twin tanks, drying the monsters inside.

The creatures remained unmoving and sleeping which was good for the survivors.

Just seeing them made Tyrell nervous. The last time he dealt with one of those things, it mutilated two of his previous teammates in unspeakable ways.

Next on the list was something called a Medium Base and everyone except the Elites spread out to search for the item in question while the alien soldiers kept a watchful eye on the B.O.W.s in case they awakened and tried to break out.

Tyrell found something that looked like a small pill container and knew it was the Medium Base item. He grabbed it and tossed it to Jamie who then tossed it to Alex and he walked back to the machine and gave it to Raymond and he placed the item with the machine.

The machine beeped positive and was now ready for operation.

There were five switches, three with Roman number symbols and two with letters A and B and there were three lights that were red, blue and green. The manual stated that the lights on the left of the switches had to be in the middle and in the correct order where a small red arrow was shown on both light bars. This was going to take a while to complete and Kristine stepped up for the job since she had more smarts on modern things.

She concentrated fully, turning the appropriate switches and watching the lights rise and fall during the process. She sighed in frustration when she got the order incorrect once. She silently cheered when she got one of the lights linked with the red arrow symbol, now for the other.

Then at last after meddling with the switches for two minutes and thirty-six seconds, Kristine matched the second light with its corresponding place and the three colored lights above blinked, meaning she had succeeded.

The machine hissed and a cylindrical area on it released a steam of white smoke and out of it came a tube that contained within it a red liquid substance. It was the Vaccine Medium, an ingredient that was meant to help in creating Jill's vaccine. Kristine picked it up and closely examined the item in question.

"Is that the vaccine?" Jamie asked.

Kristine and Raymond weren't so sure.

"Not exactly. From what the manual said, that thing is the Vaccine Medium, the first step to the real vaccine's creation, I believe." Raymond answered.

Kristine placed the vaccine prototype in her side pocket to protect it from any hazards. It had to be under very strict protection at all costs as well as the true vaccine once it was made. They didn't know if there was another way to create the vaccine without the product and they sure as hell were not going to risk losing what they now possessed.

With no further use of the synthesizer machine anymore, the Sangheilis were now free to eliminate the two B.O.W.s as instructed earlier.

The took out their energy swords and plunged their blades right into the glass tanks and through the creatures' bodies. The targeted creatures jolted awake shrieking in pain and anguish and squirmed in their tanks as the plasma blades slowly and very painfully ate away at their flesh and bones and they soon died from their injuries.

Tyrell stared with his mouth agape. Never had he seen that before. The weapons, that is.

"Ok, you people mind telling me what the hell kind of weapons you're carrying?" he asked them.

"One of a kind, pal." Alex said, leaving Tyrell dumbstruck again.

_I'm in need of a long, long vacation if I get outta this alive!_ Tyrell thought. Things just got weird for him, first the living dead and now plasma weapons that should not exist to modern society.

The group left the lab and returned to the elevator. They chose to repeat what they did before by letting one Elite go first before everybody else. This time, E'mal agreed to investigate. Like Kh'rue, he too didn't mind going alone.

Tyrell was confused about their idea and asked why they don't just use the elevator altogether and he was told of how the elevator wouldn't handle their combined weight and that their plan was to clear out whatever creatures may be lurking in the pinpointed floors one at a time as a precaution.

E'mal selected the 4th floor button and the elevator sent him on his way up.

He reached for his plasma rifle gun to prepare for whatever danger the approaching floor had waiting and, even though it was useless against the monsters, he also cloaked himself. It was just for any encounters with enemy humans, namely the U.S.S. soldiers.

The doors slid open and the lone alien stepped out and found himself inside a fancy-looking hall. So far, no enemies were spotted anywhere here.

Despite the seemingly empty scene, his combat senses still kicked in and warned him to be careful.

He walked across the hall and turned a corner and found two doors, one marked "401" and another marked as "402". With door "401" being the closest, E'mal chose to enter that one first.

The new room turned out to be a patient room complete with a bed, sink, a window and IV equipment.

He saw two human corpses in there, a former doctor laying slump with his back against a wall near the door and two others that could have been patients here. The doctor body appeared to have savage bite marks on his neck and left shoulder, caused by zombies or by something else.

With the exception of the doctor corpse, the bodies of the two patients rose up and crawled toward E'mal.

E'mal fired two shots at each of the zombies' heads with his rifle, not missing once. He even destroyed the dead doctor's head in case it too were to rise like them.

The zombies out of the way, E'mal did a wide search around the room and when he found nothing of interest, he decided to leave the room.

But then, he started getting something else on his radar screen and soon, something burst from the ceiling. It was an army of worm-like creatures that were the size of modern-day skateboards. The only noticeable traits on these new things were their large, gaping mouths filled with unsightly, gnashing teeth.

E'mal quickly opened fire upon the ugly worms. The shots burnt and disintegrated the worms rather fast because of their size. Only three had latched themselves onto his armor. Their biting attacks were ineffective against his high tech suit and shields.

He grabbed them and threw them on the ground and he killed the worms by simply squashing them under his massive feet while fatally crushing the final worm creature still clutched in his right hand.

Before leaving, he saw something in the hand of the dead doctor that he didn't see earlier. It was a slip of paper that had the numbers "325" printed on. He didn't bother taking it and left the room.

He figured that room "402" was another patient room and he wanted to inspect it anyway. It was locked and so he simply cut through the door with his energy daggers and ripped it open and set it down on the side gently to avoid attracting any unwanted attention.

He was right, it was another place like the previous entry but with no zombies this time.

To get a more thorough scan of the area, E'mal activated his helmet's Promethean vision mode and used it to look around. To his surprise, he found something behind a peculiar picture hung on a wall next to the room's sink. The frame showed an image of mountains and some trees. Unknown to him, this was a picture of the city's Arklay Mountains, the place where the mansion problem from Alex's tale took place two Earth months before now. He removed the picture and discovered a white safe sitting in a vent.

Thanks to his vision mode, E'mal was able to see something hidden inside the safe. The safe had a number-based lock attached and to open it, the safe required an input of a combination number sequence of some sort. E'mal didn't know what kind of number to put in at first until he remembered the note from the other room. He figured that it could've been the combination number for this safe box.

Sure, he could just pry the safe's door open and take the item inside, but to him, the principle of settling matters in a right way like now was more important than just resorting to brute strength. Ripping the safe open without bothering to use the combination number first would be too easy and it didn't feel right with E'mal. It would be like winning a contest without getting a chance to prove one's skills due to an opposing contestant simply walking away.

He entered the code as he remembered it and the lock denied him access. Getting an idea, E'mal tried again but he enter the numbers backwards. The lock device approved and the safe opened with a hiss of mist escaping.

The item appeared to be a Vaccine Base, the second item needed for the anti-virus serum. E'mal took it and left the room.

As soon as he set foot outside, a vent above him breached open and two red Hunter monsters that looked like the ones Kh'rue killed back on the street dropped down and greeted E'mal with snarling and roaring.

E'mal did away with them with his daggers and made his way to another door down the hall leading to a place called "DATA ROOM". It wasn't locked and he invited himself in. There were loads of data files stored on shelves everywhere, too bad he didn't have time to read them, not that he wanted to anyways.

The second he went inside, he heard a screech and found himself face to face with two more red Hunters.

E'mal slid the blades of his twin daggers against each other twice and entered a battle stance.

One of the creatures charged for him. E'mal dodged and sliced into the monster's shoulder, severing it deep, but not enough to amputate the arm. It yelled and the other Hunter quickly followed suit. E'mal grabbed the injured Hunter and threw it at the incoming creature and both slammed into each other in mid-air and landed on their rears.

While the two were suffering slight dizziness from the impact, E'mal moved in to finish them off. He sliced the first one's stomach wide open, hacked off its lower jaw and broke its neck while the second Hunter had its right leg severed and its face and head faced a four second heavy knee assault before E'mal thrust its head back and gruesomely slit its exposed throat open.

The Hunter clutched at its wounded neck, gurgled blood and bile and plopped on the floor face down.

Alone once more, E'mal walked around the lab room and came across a desk where he spotted a small key with a yellow keychain that said "Sickroom Key". He didn't know what this sickroom was, but he took the key with him anyway to bring back to the group.

He noticed the jars on the desk had various unknown organisms in them that were soaked in a chemical called formalin. The jars didn't seem of any importance or worry and E'mal didn't bother to take them.

He also found a photographic image that displayed three human zombies. The backside of the photo said "The effect of the T-virus". He figured that the person who took the snapshot was either dead, undead or somewhere far away by now.

Feeling like his work down here was finished, E'mal walked his way back to the elevator and transported himself back to his fellow shipmates and the U.B.C.S. survivor.

"You find any anything good?" Kristine asked upon seeing E'mal.

E'mal nodded and revealed the Vaccine Base part in his left hand.

"Great!" said Kristine.

With the items needed to produce the vaccine now in their hands, the group immediately got to work in making it. They didn't need any fancy machinery to get the job done.

Jamie took out the Medium, the tube with the red fluid, E'mal handed over the Base and they brainstormed on how to fuse the items properly. When they succeeded, the vaccine, the one thing that was effective against Jill Valentine's virus infection, was created.

Their side quest was complete. Not sure if the antidote was to be taken orally or via injection, a clean syringe needle was found in a hanging pouch full of other unused needles and they carefully poured the vaccine contents in through the needle's sucking motion, being ever careful not to spill even one drop. Now it was ready for use.

"Sweet! Now all we gotta do is go back and give this thing to Jill!" Alex stated.

"Alright people, let's rendezvous back to the chapel! We have a survivor to save!" Raymond declared and the entire team and the mercenary began their journey back to the clock tower.

A few stops and turns and they made it back to the hospital's main lobby. No monsters emerged this time around.

The exit in sight, they used it and were back on the filthy streets.

The outdoor atmosphere gave Tyrell the creeps. He was still in shock from surviving the bomb incident back in the hospital.

"Do any of you know where Carlos is since you said he's still alive?" he asked the group.

"Of course. Follow us and stay alert." Jamie said to him and they moved their way through the familiar path they took before and were back inside the tower's backway.

The sounds of eating filled the air when they entered the building and they spotted three female zombies consuming a corpse.

Sensing the survivors, the zombies ceased their attention on the body and desired them instead. The zombies were taken down by Tyrell who immediately opened fire on them with his pistol before any of the Elites and marines could do kill them. It seemed that whenever he saw a walking corpse, he just had to kill it. He didn't fully trust a dead body when he saw one now that the outbreak made him paranoid around the presence of fallen people and animals.

Another Brain Sucker creature was found in the next room looking for anyone to make a meal out of and met its demise after Kh'rue sliced its head off and tore its body in half from the shoulders and threw away the remains.

"Holy shit!" Tyrell whispered. Never had he seen anyone from his team do that.

They went through the blue door ahead and were inside the small library again and soon, they stepped into the main hall ruins.

"What happened here?" Tyrell asked when he saw the destruction inside.

"You don't wanna know, buddy." Kristine said and they continued going door after door until they reached the chapel area where Carlos was seen near Jill, cradling her hand as she laid on the altar still out cold.

Seconds before entering, the Elites remained outside on guard duty again like before. Tyrell didn't notice that.

Carlos saw them entering and was surprised to see another U.B.C.S. member with them and someone he knew from his previous team.

"Tyrell? Is that really you?" he asked.

Tyrell, seeing Carlos in one piece just like the crew said, approached Carlos.

"Oliveria. So you are alive, after all." he simply said to him.

Carlos wanted to ask what happened to him because of his bruised appearance, but he put it aside when he suddenly remembered why the group was back.

"Did you guys find a vaccine for Jill?" he asked the marines.

"Yeah. It's right here." Raymond answered and surrendered the vaccine tube to Carlos who was more than relieved to know that they were right about there being a vaccination for Jill Valentine's crisis.

Releasing a heavy relief sigh, Carlos snatched the vaccine from Raymond's hand, ran over to Jill and prepared to administer the drug to her.

Everyone sat down and watched in silence as the U.B.C.S. member stuck the needle in Jill's arm and injected the substance in her body. He took the syringe out when he finished and tending to her injection wound just after. Jill didn't even flinch from the needle pricking her flesh. Although the UNSC team didn't witness it, her battle with the Nemesis must have really knocked her out real good to disable her ability to feel pain.

Now that Jill had gotten the vaccination needed to save her, there was nothing else to do now but wait until she woke up, which could possibly be sooner than expected due to her being given the anti-virus serum early. Her life now belonged to the hands of time.

Despite giving the vaccine to Jill just now, Carlos still felt worried about her. He hoped that the drug would really cure her as predicted and that it was the correct one and not a vaccine meant for some other disease. If she were to succumb to the infection and become a zombie, Carlos was going to have to kill her on the spot which he feared doing and hoped that it wouldn't come to that.

While passing time, Carlos and Tyrell spoke to each other to learn what went on with one another during their time in the city while the others simply made themselves comfortable on the chapel seats and remained silent unless asked any questions by the two mercenaries.

The U.B.C.S. members looked at what they were doing and continued speaking while the rest watched and listened.

Somewhere in his story, Tyrell mentioned his run-in with Nicholai and how he almost died in the hospital from a bomb trap that Nicholai had placed and this caused Carlos to become horrified and angry about Nicholai's betrayal.

After a long time of conversation, the two U.B.C.S. soldiers turned their attention toward their new allies who were just sitting and resting. Raymond saw them and guessed that the two desired answers from them about their origins and such.

"Since we're all here, I figured that we should take this time to get to know you better. So, you guys mind telling us who you really are and why you're in town?" Carlos asked. Tyrell wanted to know too since he had asked them the same thing back at the hospital.

The group figured that perhaps they should reveal who they were before anything could go wrong.

Alex, yawning from exhaustion, spoke. "Uh, it's a _really, really_ long story. Maybe we should wait until Jill wakes up first before we'll tell you. See, she's gonna want to know about us too when she's up and about again and repeating something as long as what we have to say sounds exhausting and a big pain if you think about it. Whaddya say?"

Seeing his point, Carlos and Tyrell agreed and allowed the group to postpone their explanation story until the former S.T.A.R.S. woman regained consciousness. Telling a story over and over again really was a nuisance for most people.

With nothing else to do to occupy their time in the chapel, the crew decided to take a nice, long rest. Killing vicious monsters sure was hard work.

Carlos, Tyrell and Jill eventually may or may not have believed what they had to say at first, but they had plenty of evidence to show their honesty and the biggest ones were standing just outside the chapel.

Before anybody got too comfortable though, they looked around and spotted two surveillance cameras in the chapel's ceilings. Figuring that people from Umbrella might be watching and hearing them in the chapel, the group destroyed the cameras to ensure that anything else they would say or do in the chapel room remained private from Umbrella's ears. They also felt that Umbrella might have even seen them in action during their "visit" in town, but they weren't very concerned about that. They were scheduled to depart from modern day Earth in the next couple of days and Umbrella would have no way of following them.

Because the Nemesis would not be back for two days, the marines felt that keeping the Sangheili warriors outside was unnecessary for now and Raymond decided to have the trio make themselves known. Since they've earned Carlos and Tyrell's trust with them by saving Jill from mutation, they believed that they had no need to hide the aliens anymore.

"Hey, you can come in now!" the marine leader called out.

"Who are you talking to?" Carlos questioned nervously.

"You'll see." Jamie assured them.

In an instant, Kh'rue, Ha'mak and E'mal entered the chapel uncloaked.

Carlos unknowingly jumped back a bit while Tyrell remained calm since he was already familiar with them from the hospital.

"Who are those guys?" Carlos asked nervously.

"Our backup." Alex began to explain. "You'll love having them around because when it comes to laying the smackdown on those freaky monsters out there, these three really take the cake."

"Yes, it's true. I've seen what these people are capable of. Their battle skills are quite impressive." Tyrell explained to Carlos, backing the marines up.

Carlos remained silent for a while as he took the time to examine the three Elites. Their non-human features were concealed underneath their helmets and armor suits so Carlos nor Tyrell had any way of knowing they were real space aliens and just assumed that they were tall, bulky people with their hands and feet being part of their suits' designs. He was quite amazed at how they looked.

Carlos suddenly snapped out of his delusion and asked for everyone's names to which they gladly gave out. When the Elites told their names, Carlos believed they were foreign like he was due to the way their voices and identities sounded. In an ironic twist, he was correct. The Elites were indeed aliens in two ways.

After a brief moment of just standing and staring at each other, everyone in the chapel went back to what they were doing. The UNSC and Elites sat down and dozed off. Tyrell did the same while Carlos stayed by Jill's side.

About two and a half hours later, an explosion far from outside the chapel's grounds jolted everyone awake except Jill.

"What was that?" Tyrell asked.

Ha'mak and Alex left the chapel to investigate the cause of the explosion which they did by making their way to the building's wrecked rooftop for a better view.

Minutes later, they returned with upsetting news.

"It appears that the medical structure where we found the vaccination is now blazing in fire and smoke." Ha'mak said.

"Yep. The hospital's roasting now." Alex said to back Ha'mak's statement up.

Gathering themselves, the ship crew prepared to go out and investigate. Only one member of their group was asked to stay behind and guard the three survivors while they were gone and E'mal was once again elected for the job and once again, he didn't mind.

Carlos asked why they needed someone to guard them and Alex warned him that the Nemesis would return eventually to make another killing attempt on Jill and possibly him too for rebelling against it earlier.

"It will?" Carlos asked and Alex nodded.

Taking a good look at E'mal's physique and his fancy gadgets and weaponry, Tyrell trusted their judgement and allowed the alien warrior to stay with them.

"We might as well let him stay. Better safe than sorry." he suggested to Carlos and the latter accepted having E'mal with them.

"We'll be back. Keep them safe until we get back, big guy!" Alex said to E'mal and the group exited the chapel through the same door they used before, leaving E'mal with the other three humans.

"I wonder what Jill will think when she wakes up and sees those guys and him. I think she'll think negatively of them." Carlos said to Tyrell, pointing at E'mal with his thumb upon uttering the last word of his first sentence.

"I believe she won't if we tell her that they aided in saving her life." Tyrell told him.

E'mal stood in the middle of the area and remained on guard, ready to tackle the Nemesis creature or any particular threat that neared the chapel.

With the alien watching the door, Tyrell offered to observe Jill for Carlos in case she underwent certain changes and told Carlos to take a break.

Carlos agreed and took a seat and stretched his back. He glanced at E'mal for a moment out of slight nervousness, then at Jill before telling Tyrell or E'mal to wake him when he was needed and he drifted off into a nap. The night really worn him out.

Outside, the venturing marines and Sangheilis made their trek back to the gardens. They heard the sounds of emergency sirens blaring at high volume, telling them that something was very wrong.

They boarded their vehicles and drove all the way back to the hospital grounds where they abhorrently witnessed the town's only active medical center now in flames as Kh'rue and Alex had said when they arrived there.

The hospital's active alarms made the marines fear that the noise would attract the attention of any monsters around.

As if on cue, a mob of hungry zombies were seen passing by a store and some of those creatures spotted the crew and stumbled toward them instead. The crowd was bigger than any other zombie mob they've seen.

The group fired their vehicles' weapons at the undead, killing them faster than how they did with their guns and energy blades.

Raccoon General Hospital's structure started to weaken from the inferno. Smoke rose in the air even though it was hard to see it in the pitch-black sky.

After the mob was terminated, the group watched in silence as the hospital, unable to withstand the damage the fire was causing any longer, crumbled under itself and started sinking to the ground with smoke rising and debris being flung everywhere and soon, Raccoon General Hospital was gone. All the debris was all that was left of the building.

"Damn! That Nicholai person must've been desperate to get rid of that place." Kristine said.

"Should we check it out?" Jamie asked.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt." Raymond said and they drove toward the site.

A few abandoned vehicles had to be blasted away to squeeze through the clattered roads in order to get to the hospital remains. Alex didn't want a repeat of his crash. He was lucky that he didn't fracture anything in his body or that would've been a problem for him.

Debris and ash filled the air as the crew drove closer to the ruins for inspection.

With nothing interesting or important seen anywhere on the ruins, the group decided to head back to the tower chapel.

Then they suddenly started hearing gunfire going off somewhere in the city along with a few explosions. The group stopped their vehicles for a better listen of the situation.

Believing it to be more survivors, the group needed to make a choice of whether to retreat to the tower chapel to check on Jill's status or put it aside and investigate the event going on now.

Something fiery rose in the air and disappeared, prompting the group to investigate the situation.

It wasn't long before they arrived in the city's downtown district and discovered what appeared to be a massive gun battle taking place between two teams of eight uninfected people. They parked their vehicles and placed all but one weapon in them since their equipment may slow them down.

One side had dark-uniformed soldiers whom the marines and Elites correctly guessed to be U.S.S. members and the opposite group were of some other organization or were simply a militia that they've never encountered before.

Zombies walked in on the battle and were quietly taken care of by both teams.

The UNCS/Sangheili team quietly hid their vehicles in dark building corners and kept watch over the fight while staying in the shadows, deciding to decipher the event before making any moves. No monsters of any kind were within their proximity.

"Alex, Do you know anything about those people fighting?" Raymond asked and all eyes darted to Alex who was seen crouched near a dumpster.

"You recall what I said before about the U.S.S.'s Wolfpack unit?" Alex asked.

They nodded.

"Well, that's them right over there." Alex said and pointed at the six black ops squad.

"As for the other ones fighting them," he said about the opposite group engaging the Wolfpack members. "I believe that's the Echo Six group from the Spec Ops Field Unit."

The crew witnessed one Wolfpack soldier dressed in a heavy-looking bomb-resistant uniform shoving an unknown object inside a zombie's mouth and kicking it away where, seconds later, the object caused the zombie to explode and die, claiming several other zombies with it. The object it had in its jaws turned out to be a frag grenade.

Despite that person's allegiance to the Umbrella company, even Alex had to admit that what he did just now was downright impressive.

As the gun brawl progressed, the spying crew were trying to determine if they should jump in and intervene in the fight, mostly on Echo Six's behalf as they obviously knew what Wolfpack stood for. If they did, then the Wolfpack individuals wouldn't stand a chance against them together, especially when they had two powerful aliens with them.

As they thought it over, heavy thumping sounds were heard and felt, jolting the two fighting groups and pulsing nervousness in the marines. The sounds grew louder every passing second. Whatever made them must have been colossal. The FOREVER crew had a sinking feeling that it wasn't reinforcements for either rival team.

One of the women soldiers from Wolfpack noticed the problem and said something inaudible to another woman from the group.

A section of the battlesite burst apart and in stepped a large, bald man-like figure wearing a dark green trench coat.

"Holy shit! Is that the Nemesis creature, Alex?" Jamie asked.

"Nope. That's a Tyrant creature, one of Umbrella's top of the line B.O.W. creations. It possesses incredible strength that's similar to Elites and Brutes which allows it to outmatch the average person, making it extremely dangerous!" Alex said to her.

"Is that being the only one of its kind?" Kh'rue questioned.

"You wish, buddy. Umbrella created more like that thing and deployed them all across the entire city. Tyrant models are Umbrella Inc's ultimate whoop-ass machines. That is, until they cook up stronger, faster and smarter creatures in the future." he explained, referring to the future outbreaks.

The Tyrant creature was seen going after both Echo Six and Wolfpack soldiers simultaneously and indiscriminately. He seemed uninterested in helping the latter group despite them both being in league with Umbrella and both sides had to deal with the giant whilst still fighting themselves. A rough combination.

The hidden survivors saw the Tyrant backhand one of the Wolfpack women away and she was sent flying back and crashing into the side of an abandoned car next to one of the men from Echo Six.

"Whoa, that thing's super strong!" Kristine exclaimed after seeing that.

The Echo Six man fired a few shots at the towering giant with some assistance from one of his teammates, a red-haired woman who wielded a large machine gun.

At their hiding place, the crew felt that they couldn't just stand by idly and watch the thing resume its wild spree. Killing Wolfpack might suit them well since they were fighting for the company that started the city's mess, but Echo Six was another story.

"Come on, you guys. We should help them! By which I mean the Echo Six people." Alex said, feeling the need to correct his speech even though they already knew what he meant.

"He's right! We might not belong here at all, but upon joining our respective military units back home, we all swore an oath to help anyone in need and fight off all enemies foreign and domestic, and as of now, from different time periods." Jamie stated, backing him up and everyone agreed.

Due to having a sniper rifle, Alex insisted that he stay behind to provide cover fire for the team, but Raymond told Alex to hand over his rifle and leave that job to him. Alex asked why and Kristine informed him that his hands were shaking and sniping with shaky hands was a bad call.

Alex looked at his hands and realized she was right as his hands were twitching due to either the cold, night weather or because the upcoming mission objective was giving him an adrenaline rush and that would leave him unable to focus his shots. So he gave his rifle to Raymond and swapped for an assault rifle instead and their leader told the group to go on ahead and the group began their move into the fight.

Kh'rue and Ha'mak engaged their cloaking devices as they marched on with Alex, Jamie and Kristine and Raymond looked for a way up to one of the nearby buildings for a better view. He then realized that he probably should've asked Ha'mak or Kh'rue to fly him upward before.

He spotted a ladder that led up to an apartment complex's rooftop and he hurriedly took it. When he made it to the roof, he quickly began scouting for enemies before finally finding a good shooting spot near the roof's edge and setting his rifle in a comfortable position when things looked clear. He was now ready. Despite not being the group's official sniper marksman, Raymond did shoot a sniper gun a few times during weapons training exercises back when he was a UNSC pupil, but he didn't like it then.

In the fight, the Tyrant picked up a car and lifted it over his head with outlandish strength and prepared to heave it at the two Echo Six people and the Wolfpack woman who was crawling away slowly and painfully. She looked heavily injured and weakened from being subjected to the creature's brief assault on her.

Just when the Echo Six members figured they were done for, as evidenced by the man uttering a curse, Ha'mak, while hidden via his cloaking, quickly unsheathed his energy sword and deliberately sliced the flying car in half down the middle in one swipe, saving the soldiers' lives from what would have been their end.

The two people, as well as the Tyrant, each had confused looks written on their faces after seeing that. The woman took a quick glance while still moving away and she was also stunned by the mysterious act.

Before the Tyrant could act any further, Raymond took aim for the Tyrant, held in his breath for better accuracy and pulled his rifle's trigger. His gun went off and the bullet flew at the Tyrant at top speed, even faster than modern sniper rifles, and buried itself into the creature's face, making him cringe and grunt in pain.

"Bullseye." he said quietly.

Ha'mak tackled the distracted humanoid monster in a spear-style move and he and the Tyrant both fell backwards on the ground. The impact felt more like a small earthquake.

After getting back up, the Tyrant began swinging his massive fists everywhere to try harming Ha'mak, but he failed at striking the alien fighter who looked on in silence. If he were the funny type like Alex was, he'd probably snicker at the creature's pathetic attempt of fighting back.

Ha'mak crept up to the Tyrant, instantly raised his sword and brought the plasma blade down on one of the Tyrant's arms, severing it. The limb fell to the ground and blood showered out of the new stump where the monster's arm was. The Tyrant let out a loud, painful shriek.

While the creature tended to his new injury, Ha'mak took the opportunity to thrust his sword directly into the Tyrant's chest cavity and through its body, all while standing in front of the foe. The Tyrant stood in its spot, its face cringed in pain and reaching at the invisible blade protruding in his body with only one hand although it retreated in a jolt after feeling the burn of the blade while the cloaked assassin also stood his ground and stared at the creature with unnerved eyes.

It was at that moment that the Echo Six and Wolfpack soldiers halted their conflict shortly after the sudden attack on the giant and they were all puzzled as to who or what was responsible.

One of the Echo Six members heard something and turned and spotted the three UNSC marines running toward them, holding their guns. Both teams were unaware of Ha'mak or Kh'rue's presence with them or Raymond's who was observing their every move from afar. Wolfpack also saw them and wondered who they were.

Feeling unsure which side the newcomers were affiliated with, Wolfpack and Echo Six didn't know whether or not to engage them too until the choice was made for them when Alex, Kristine and Jamie fired their weapons at Wolfpack.

* * *

**With all three team's origins explained, it's on to the fight you've all been drooling over . . .**

**By the way, the way Wolfpack and Echo Six met was borrowed from ORC's "Triple Impact Trailer".**

* * *

"Who the fuck are they?" Beltway questioned, confused about the appearance of the UNSC troops just as everybody else.

"Don't know, but get to cover!" Lupo ordered as she was beginning to stand up and wobbled from dizziness and they each dove for their original cover spots with Echo Six mimicking them. Both teams awaited further orders from their leaders on what to do about the newcomers. They were seen heading for Echo Six whom all aimed their weapons at them under the belief that they were additional hostiles.

Kristine was the first to communicate with them.

"Don't shoot! We're not your enemies!" she said to them.

Skeptical on believing her, Willow spoke on behalf of Echo Six as they resumed their shooting match with Wolfpack.

"Who exactly are you people?" she asked them.

"We'll tell you later! Right now, we're here to help you out in dealing with those soldiers and that hostile giant." Jamie said. She tried to be honest as best as she can, the dire situation going on warded off her focus.

At first, the Echo Six soldiers thought that these new strangers were part of some ploy against them from Umbrella, but with everything being so chaotic right now, they decided to place their trust into the new group and soon, both teams were working together against Wolfpack. This action allowed Wolfpack to know the answer to which side the marines were with and considered them to be enemies of them and Umbrella Inc.

During the conflict between Ha'mak and the T-103, Ha'mak, still holding onto his sword, shoved the heavily injured creature off the plasma blade with the palm of his hand and the Tyrant stumbled around from his gruesome and nearly-lethal injuries before falling to one knee. Blood from his back, chest and arm injuries discharged all over the ground at an uncontrollable rate. He groaned and withered in pain from the traumatic blood loss. Even with his regeneration ability, the experience of being impaled by an energy-based weapon was still indefinably painful, plus the action may have damaged one of his lungs and weakened the creature's breathing and he sounded like he was suffering an asthma attack.

But nonetheless, even with only three limbs left and despite the life-sustaining damage on him, the Tyrant was still able to advance with his new fight against Ha'mak. Even though he was unable to see Ha'mak, the Tyrant was able to hear the alien approaching and before Ha'mak could strike with his sword again, the T-103 suddenly reached out with his remaining arm and grab his opponent, surprising Ha'mak as well as the B.O.W. itself on how the latter was able to detect the former.

Clutching Ha'mak, the Tyrant flung him back hard. Ha'mak was sent plowing through the window of an abandoned auto parts store and during the impact, he lost his grip on his sword weapon and his weapons flung everywhere.

The landing disrupted his cloaking in a static-like manner and revealed his form to five zombies that were in the store with him (although without the cloak, they still would've managed to see him anyway).

Ha'mak got back up, killed the zombies without his weapons, cleared up his cloaking device, scooped up his weapons and energy sword and exited the store to do battle with the Tyrant monster again and he finished him off by chopping his head off completely. The Tyrant's surviving arm and hand moved about where his head used to be, grabbing at nothing but blood and air as if he were checking if his head was still intact until he completely dropped to the street dead. Ha'mak had just killed his first T-103 and it only took a minute when it usually took someone at least more than that to do.

Meanwhile, elsewhere during the fight, Vector was trying to get a clear shot at Dee-Ay who was still stunned from seeing the Tyrant die brutally. But Dee-Ay quickly returned to his senses when Tweed warned him about Vector and he got out of the way just as the shot was fired.

Vector narrowly avoided a retaliation gunshot by the Echo Six frontman and before he could try again at killing his intended target, he heard rushing, heavy footsteps coming at him and was met with a swift and powerful shoulder ram to the side by Kh'rue who, like Ha'mak, remained invisible. Vector was sent sprawling on the cold ground.

The brush attack was very painful for Vector. Never had he been tackled with such physical like that before. He wondered if this was what it felt like to be brushed aside by a Tyrant.

In pain from the alien's mighty move, Vector quickly got back up and unleashed a large, spray of bullets everywhere in a plan to draw its physical form out.

Some of his bullets tagged off Kh'rue and, like with Ha'mak, his form appeared abruptly but not fully and Vector had at least gotten a good look at what he was up against by a slim chance. It was good enough for the Umbrella agent.

_This fucker has cloaking technology too!_ he though with irritation. Before the UNSC showed up, he was unaware that Echo Six member Willow also had the same power he did. But during their battle, she hadn't used hers yet, which was why he didn't know and still didn't.

The Wolfpack soldier didn't have the time to decipher this new information as Kh'rue immediately seized Vector's left arm and threw him far across the intersection and he landed right next to the fiery remains of the car Beltway destroyed earlier.

"My god, that guy's strong!" he said weakly and coughed. While his suit cushioned the painful crash, it still forced all the air out of him real good. That throw also nearly separated his arm socket!

Possessing a battle plan, Vector reactivated his own cloak and decided to combat the aggressive Sangheili like that.

However, after seeing what Vector just did, Kh'rue easily penetrated the man's cloaking with the help of his helmet's Promethean vision mode and prepared to fight with him.

Vector could not see Kh'rue, but the latter combatant was able to see the former, which meant a high advantage for him. Vector would have to rely on timed hearing to detect Kh'rue's presence.

Kh'rue activated one of his energy daggers and began his approach on Vector. He did not activate his second dagger in case he needed a free hand for grabbing.

Taking a wild guess of where the alien was coming from, Vector leaped out of the way, evading what would have been a fatal stabbing from the Elite's wrist weapon by a mere few inches. When he was at a safe distance from harm, Vector fired his assault rifle again at where he assumed Kh'rue was at and missed. He began to wish that he had the same thermal equipment Spectre carried so that this match would have been a bit easier for him like it was for Kh'rue.

When Kh'rue got up close to Vector, the U.S.S. soldier heard him again and ducked from another dagger swipe, but then he was struck by a backhand attack by Kh'rue's dagger-less hand. The hit was hard enough to send him flying again and he slammed into the side of an armored truck. That most definitely messed with his cloaking, plus it was strong enough to nearly knock him unconscious or even give him some head trauma and/or internal bleeding. That last part came true as Vector coughed and tasted a little blood in his mouth.

His vision nearly deteriorating, Vector could have sworn to have seen the cloaking being coming to him with what looked like a knife in his hand, although it was invisible, too.

Sensing what was going to happen, Vector deliberately held up his rifle in front of him as a means of protection just as Kh'rue held up his bladed hand and simply sliced the weapon in half with one swipe of his dagger.

Vector dropped the severed halves of his gun with a look of shock and mild horror as he wondered how the invisible foe was able to accomplish something like that.

Before Kh'rue could get the chance to slay Vector, a red Hunter and a Licker suddenly appeared and pushed Kh'rue aside, sparing the Wolfpack trooper from harm for now. The pounce attack disrupted Kh'rue's cloak and revealed his full form right in front of the creatures and Vector who was stunned at what he was looking at.

_Who or _what_ the fucking hell is that guy supposed to be?!_ he thought after seeing what his enemy truly looked like for the first time. Nobody else from Wolfpack or Echo Six got a look at Kh'rue since they were still at each other.

With Kh'rue being occupied by the two creatures, Vector quickly and inconspicuously slipped away from their sights to catch a break. Vector figured that due to how Kh'rue fought him, he was definitely no match for him and figured that perhaps they should just leave right now. Another minute here and he and Wolfpack would be done for.

On another part of the battle, Alex noticed Beltway slowly moving away from his teammates to probably find a better place to shoot and Alex also began doing the same thing. His teammates, nor Beltway's, paid any attention. For some reason, he felt the need to confront the guy himself. He somehow reminded Alex of someone he knew from his own time who was, how Alex had briefly put it once, "one sick son of a bitch".

Alex crouched down and carefully sneaked around behind several vehicles and one hot dog cart. The unlit street lamps near him hid him in darkness, allowing him stealth and to not be seen by anybody. Beltway was unaware of the marine following him.

Still undetected, Alex kept moving, keeping an eye on Beltway who still didn't know about him being stalked. He quickly took cover behind some buildings away from everyone's eyes, carefully looking out for any monsters that may detect his presence.

Once Alex got within close range of Beltway and the latter was far away from his team, the marine planned to launch a surprise attack on the Wolfpack member until his stepping on an unseen discarded beer can gave away his presence which caused Beltway to turn and discover Alex.

_D'oh!_ he thought.

Now aware of him, Beltway prepared to shoot him, but Alex quickly took action by shooting a spray shot of his own with his assault rifle, missing Beltway and hitting the man's weapon instead. This action also used up the small bit of ammo Alex had in his gun's clip as he had forgotten to check it first. His time shooting at Wolfpack must have drained said clip.

In response to that, Beltway took one of his grenades and hurled it at Alex. But Alex quickly grabbed the grenade before it can land and threw it back at Beltway pitching-style. It bounced off Beltway's armor and landed right in front of him and Alex.

"SHIT!" they yelled and tried to flee before the bomb could go off. While Alex was fast enough to escape the upcoming blast, Beltway wasn't and when the grenade exploded, it sent him slamming into the side of an out-of-business store.

After that, Alex carefully went to see if Beltway was truly dead. He reloaded after remembering to.

Beltway, while groggy, noticed Alex approaching and feigned death until the marine was closer and when he was, the Wolfpack soldier struck back at the surprised person.

Alex jumped back a bit from Beltway's reach and the two men aimed their weapons at one another and squeezed the triggers of their guns. But both firearms refused to fire, they had suffered jamming malfunctions.

"Dammit!" Alex and Beltway yelled together again.

Frustrated, the two enemies dropped their primary weapons, switched to their sidearms instead and fired, but, like their previous guns, their pistols also jammed and would not fire, too. Beltway had no other guns on him and Alex left his other ones behind with their vehicles.

Rather than waste any time fixing their weapons, they just threw their malfunctioning pistols at each other like rocks. Both were struck by the tossed guns which barely hurt them because of their armor and uniforms. They then switched to knife fighting.

Beltway swiped his knife at Alex. The UNSC marine was superior to Beltway in speed and reflex movements and dodged every single swipe.

During that time, he also equipped his own knife and he and Beltway exchanged attacks that were similar to a sword duel.

"Hold still, bitch!" Beltway said to him after his foe deflected and dodged every one of his attacks.

"Make me, Moby Dickhead!" Alex retorted with a slight laugh. His remark was on account of Beltway's large size. Though dressed in armor and explosive-resistant padding, combined, those things still altered Beltway's appearance and made him look as if he had a weight issue. In other words, he looked overweight.

After a while, both combatants had their knives separated from their hands during their duel and relied on hand to hand combat as a last resort.

Both men proved excellence at unarmed combat as both were thoroughly trained in the art.

Like with their knife fight, Alex evaded several blows from the U.S.S. soldier and taunted him by placing his thumbs and hands across the sides of his head and sticking his tongue out.

His clowning around, along with the failure of hurting him, increased Beltway's anger and hatred for the guy.

Eventually, the fight got Alex cornered between the demolitions expert and two abandoned school buses.

"Gotcha now, smartass!" Beltway remarked wickedly and prepared to charge. He planned to simply break his neck rather than kill him slowly to save himself some time.

But Alex was not afraid of the peg-legged soldier and urged him to attack with a "come here" motion with his index fingers.

"And then I disappear!" Alex yelled out as he dodged Beltway's reaching hands with a fast crouch and dive maneuver.

Before Beltway could recover and try again, he was knocked down by Alex with a spear tackle and was grabbed by the feet and dragged away from the buses.

Beltway tried to counter, but he was slapped down by Alex who then started to bounce on Beltway's back with his feet, causing the Umbrella member to bounce up and down repeatedly on the ground like a trampoline.

Having enough, Beltway turned himself around and kicked Alex away with his organic leg.

When Beltway got up and was about to commence a revenge attack, Alex charged at him and latched himself onto Beltway in a bear-hug grip.

"Anaconda squeeze!" he said and tightened his constriction hold on the U.S.S. soldier as best as he can.

Although not completely harmed by Alex's actions, Beltway still expressed great disgust at this.

"Ugh! Get the fuck off me, numbnuts!" Beltway angrily yelled and struggled to shake the space marine off of himself.

At some point during the struggle, Beltway unwittingly dragged Alex and himself to an old abandoned pizza and pasta restaurant called "S.G. Pizza" where Beltway was finally able to break free of his enemy's hold by slamming him against a wall.

The two foes continued their little street brawl to the restaurant's kitchen area that appeared to be littered with discarded menus, napkins, cooking and eating utensils and messy stoves with overturned pots and pans, some were filled with rotting consumables.

One of them slammed the other against a large, pizza cooking oven. The impact popped open the oven's hatch door. He looked for a way to start it up, but he learned that it was already active. Someone else must have left it on prior to the outbreak. He grabbed Beltway by the back of his neck and led the man to the oven's main point of entry.

"Gee, all this fighting sure is making me hungry! How's about I cook up a large pizza pie with some bastard toppings on it!" he bragged and rammed Beltway's midsection hard against the door's edge to force him to bend over and he slid the hapless enemy across the oven's cooking center a couple of times.

In truth, Alex really was hungry. He didn't get to consume his MRE ration earlier. His stomach growled, but he didn't notice because he was too busy beating the hell out of Beltway and kinda having a ball with it.

Beltway didn't suffer any major burns from that because of his suit's thickness, but he still felt the heat.

Alex released Beltway, splashed him with a pan of rotting spaghetti and then hit him in the head with it to daze him further.

He picked up a pile of leftover pizza dough and threw it in Beltway's direction just as he stood up again. The floppy dough flapped on Beltway's entire head and blocked his vision completely, allowing Alex to dash and execute a powerful dropkick move on him and Beltway stumbled back, still standing though.

Seeing a soda dispensing machine with seven choice flavors, one of them including his favorite flavor orange, Alex then dragged a dazed Beltway over to the beverage device and dipped his foe's dough-covered head under the nozzles.

"You want a soft drink to go with that ass-whoopin'?" he asked and sprayed the Wolfpack soldier with all seven various flavors, drenching Beltway's entire head and parts of his neck and shoulders and shoving him away when he was done.

He took a quick sip of the orange soda dripping from the machine prior to moving on to the next objective.

Next, he flipped the blindsided Beltway over a table after the latter tried to hit him, breaking it in half. That maneuver wore Alex's shoulders down due to Beltway's weight.

"Here, have a salad while you're waiting, fatso! You'll need the nutrition!" Alex taunted and picked up a plate of leftover lettuce and cucumbers and dumped it all over Beltway while he was dazed from the slam attack.

While catching his breath, Alex spotted a telephone sitting on the restaurant's recipient desk counter. It was similar to the telephones he saw in the future, but without the fancy hologram tech that future phones were built with.

He took the telephone, placed the receiver against his ear and pretended to answer it as if it were ringing.

"Thank you for calling S.G. Pizza, home of the best bitchin' pizza around. How may I help you?" he said mockingly and carried the phone with him. He stomped on Beltway to knock him back down as he was trying to get up. Beltway coughed from the attack.

"Yeah, there's an U.S.S. soldier here, but he can't talk at the moment 'cause right now, he's got my _foot_ in his mouth!" He kicked Beltway again, but on the back of his head and harder.

Beltway slowly staggered toward Alex and tried to grapple him.

"You may wanna call back later. He's a little tied up right now." Alex said and then struck Beltway with the phone and began wrapping the phone's cord around his neck to strangle him with it. Beltway coughed and struggled to stand up as he tried to counter the attack.

Beltway freed himself by elbowing Alex in his pelvis, unwrapped the cord from his neck, picked up a pizza cutting tool from the floor and threatened Alex with it.

"I'm gonna cut you into eight slices of 'Bitch-aroni', motherfucker!" he said viciously and swung the cutter's round blade at Alex.

"Like to see you try . . . _Hector Hivers_!" Alex said, using Beltway's real name as a direct insult.

A look of surprise was made on Beltway's masked face after hearing his own name uttered by this crazy person. He gripped the pizza cutter's handle tightly out of rising anguish. He could not believe that Alex knew of his identity.

"Hey, how the fuck do you know who I am?" he demanded and Alex gave him no answer. "Answer me!"

"You gotta catch me first, Hector!" Alex smirked after saying Beltway's name again and expressed a raspberry with a twin "L" signs with his hands.

Unable to contain himself any further, Beltway immediately dashed at Alex and lashed out with his food weapon and all Alex did was avoid being cut as long as possible until he stopped Beltway with a clear kick to his face and then his hand, causing Beltway to drop the cutting device.

"My turn!" Alex said and scooped up the pizza cutter. But before he could get the chance to use it on Beltway, he was locked in a powerful head grip from Beltway and was now being choked intensely.

"Not feeling all high and mighty now, are you smartass?" Beltway said. He had planned to strangle his enemy to death like he planned before and to him, he might get his wish. With or without his suit, Beltway sure was a strong one and right now, he was crushing Alex's windpipe real good."

Unable to intake very much oxygen with every passing second, Alex had to drum up a means of escaping this pickle and he thought it up fast.

He raised his pizza cutter and hacked at Beltway's prosthetic leg, mistaking it for a real flesh and blood leg and he uttered a quick, "D'oh!" from realizing his error and Beltway felt nothing from the helpless slice.

"Wrong one, asshole!" Beltway smirked evilly. Alex tried it again on his real leg. Beltway felt it this time, but he still refused to yield to the pain and resumed asphyxiating his opponent.

_Maybe . . . I went too far . . . by using his real name in front of him!_ Alex thought with regret as his started feeling the effects of the strangulation hold. By now, his brain was starving from a lack of oxygen and he felt like passing out.

With time almost running out, Alex did the next and only thing he could think of at the moment and that was swiping the cutter's blade at Beltway's grenade bandoleer as hard as he can until one of those grenades was struck so hard that it was set to blow.

"OH, FUCK!" Beltway yelled at the top of his lungs and released his grip on Alex to deal with his new problem with such haste. He didn't know which grenade Alex had struck, so he chose to get rid of all of all of them and fast.

Free from the strangling hold, Alex had only one second to take in one gulp of air into his lungs and rushed to find some cover behind a toppled table.

Beltway hurriedly removed his grenade belt and strongly tossed it and just in time too because the second he did, the chipped grenade exploded and the other explosives followed suit in a chain reaction.

The super-combined blast radius was within close range of Beltway and Alex that while Alex was safely sheltered from the harmful detonation's effects, parts of the flames touched Beltway's hands and lit them up on fire. The reason for that was because during the kitchen brawl, Beltway unknowingly made contact with some leftover flammable cooking fluids.

Beltway yelped in panic as he patted his burning hands against his suit until the fires were put out. He felt no burns anywhere on his hands and fingers.

He turned his attention back onto Alex and was about to keep fighting with him until the entire restaurant began rumbling and the two stopped to look around.

Apparently, that whopper grenade explosion had recently done lots of damage to the building's structure and weakened it. The pizza restaurant was getting ready to cave in and the result would kill them both if they didn't leave now.

Beltway and Alex made a mad dash for the exit and, as predicted, the eatery collapsed wholly and was no more and the foes were back out on the street.

Beltway looked around for Alex and saw running away to where his fallen assault rifle was. He was going to reclaim his gun and kill off Beltway.

"Get your ass back here, so I can finish choking it!" Beltway demanded and chased after Alex in a huff.

"Go be gay on your own time somewhere else, 'Peggy'!" Alex yelled back while running, still referring to the Wolfpack soldier's false leg.

That remark was the final straw for Beltway. It was just as worse as being addressed by his real name before and he vowed on torturing Alex slowly and cruelly before killing him. Normally, that was something only Bertha would have done as per her background.

Alex had approached his fallen gun and was about to pick it up when Beltway had managed to catch up with him and tackled his tormentor to the ground with blunt force. Both of them wrestled each other for control of the firearm.

Beltway kicked Alex away and crawled for the unguarded weapon, boastfully saying "It's mine!"

"Not today!" Alex stated as he gripped Beltway's right ankle and strongly dragged him away and finally reunited with his trusty assault rifle and trained it on Beltway as the U.S.S. man stood up and stared at Alex in defeat.

"Checkmate, douchbag!" Alex said.

Rather than run for any cover, not that there was any near them, and without anything to defend himself with, Beltway had a much rather peculiar and daring idea.

"C'mon, do it! I fuckin' dare you!" he ranted. Since he was unarmed and defenseless, Beltway was hoping to get to Alex's conscience. He knew obviously that the man with the gun was supposed to be a good guy since he and his own teammates had come here to help Echo Six against Wolfpack and figured that Alex carried a sense of right and wrong and hoped to use some reverse psychology on him.

But Alex simply said, "Okay, I will!" Beltway stood his ground, hoping that the weapon still jammed like before.

Alex was just one millisecond away from unleashing a hail of bullets in Beltway's direction when all of a sudden, he stopped himself. It appeared that something had just occurred to him. Something possibly very serious.

Beltway could tell that something was amiss with his enemy judging by the look in his eyes and on his face. He was under the impression that Alex didn't have the balls to kill him out of righteousness issues as he had assumed. He just stood there like a robot that's just been deprogrammed and awaited orders.

"Can't do it, can you?" Beltway asked the marine who said nothing back to him. "Then allow me!"

Beltway picked up a shard of glass from the pizza place he didn't notice before and wanted to use it to strike Alex down who still didn't make any sounds or movements since he didn't know where his knife was now.

Before Alex can react to the upcoming threat, Beltway suddenly yelled out in pain as a random shot was fired from far away, penetrating his lower back area and he dropped the shard and it broke apart into further little pieces.

The gunshot snapped Alex back to reality and noticed Beltway was in terrible pain from being shot at. He looked around and saw his teammates still assisting Echo Six and realized that Raymond must have been the shooter and he was right.

Back on the rooftop, Raymond fiddled with his rifle's bolt-action lever after firing and stared on with a look that spelled confusion after seeing what went on between Alex and Beltway down below.

"Why in god's name were you hesitating to kill that guy, Alex?" Raymond quietly said to himself. He was upset inside that he missed at killing the U.S.S. person and prepared to try again.

But before he could do that, he heard something clatter. He turned his head and spotted four Crimson Head zombies on the roof with him.

"Aw, shit!" he yelled and engaged the four creatures. He killed one via a random headshot with his rifle(normally, it took more than one simple gunshot to kill a Crimson Head that way, but the rifle's advanced ammo made the job easy), knocked two off the roof and tripped the fourth one and beat it to death with the butt of his gun.

When Raymond was busy with the zombies, Beltway, while clutching at where he was hurt with his right hand, quickly turned his head and saw Alex's teammate, Jamie, gunning down two zombies that tried to attack from behind by herself and he accused her of shooting him although she had no sniper rifle on her, just her submachine guns. But Beltway didn't care, the pain drove him crazy.

"AH! You crazy bitch!" an enraged Beltway screamed. Jamie heard him, turned to face him and was confused by his words. Instantly, her confusion converted into fear as the Umbrella soldier began running at her to retaliate for his injury.

Alex tried to shoot his gun to stop Beltway, but it still would not fire, causing him to utter a curse and Jamie quickly kicked the hostile man away. Like with his pistol, Alex threw his rifle weapon at Beltway to distract him long enough to subject him to a second restraining hold to prevent him from harming anyone. He tried his best to restrain him however possible, but Beltway was proving to be difficult to to that.

"Get the fuck off me, shithead!" Beltway said angrily as he once again struggled with Alex.

Jamie got ready to help out by aiming her submachine pistols at the fallen target when they heard the shrill scream of the T-103 creature that fought with Ha'mak far away and turned their sights on it. During the distraction, Beltway shoved Alex away and started running back to Wolfpack. Jamie fired at him, but missed.

The Tyrant was seen stumbling around and clutching at its neck with its single, remaining arm and was producing blood from his mouth. From what they saw, its neck was also showing signs of blood leakage which began to grow rapidly. Then the monster's head suddenly started sliding off its body and splatted on the ground with the body falling as well.

The Tyrant menace was dead. Its headless neck stump produced a lot of blood that leaked on the street like a volcano that had erupted.

It seemed that Ha'mak or Kh'rue had decapitated the dangerous Tyrant with their energy swords or daggers, doing Echo Six and, unfortunately Wolfpack, a favor.

Dee-Ay and Tweed saw what became of the Tyrant from their car cover and displayed signs and looks of awe and horror.

"What . . . the hell . . . could've done that to it!?" Tweed asked. Like with Dee-Ay, she was relieved to see the Tyrant monster that nearly killed them dead itself, but she was also nervous about who or what its killer was.

Harley witness the death of the Tyrant as well and, hearing her question, glanced at the UNSC marines and was beginning to suspect that they knew about the event.

"Let me ask them!" Harley said, repeating Tweed's own words to her when they first met Wolfpack.

He carefully trekked his way over to where Alex, Jamie and Kristine were and opened his mouth to speak to them.

"Any of you newbies wanna explained what the fuck just happened?" he questioned.

"What do you mean?" Kristine asked. She was unaware of what just transpired with the Tyrant monster until Harley literally pointed it out, showing them the Tyrant's headless corpse and let out a silent gasp of amazement. She was amazed that one of the Elites was able to outmatch the Tyrant.

Before any explanations could be exchanged by the three marines, the three groups were interrupted by the unexpected appearances of two more T-103 models! Both creatures had crashed out of an old, shoe store and were ready for battle.

Seeing the two, new towering twins on site made the Wolfpack unit feel incredibly uneasy. After their run-ins with three previous T-103's during their mission, fighting even one more of those things was not in their cards. They could not bear to risk handling them as they had it rough dealing with Echo Six and the UNSC/Elite troops. The T-103 creatures would just further jeopardize whatever chances of survival they had left in the near-future and their final escape offer from their employers.

Placing the safety of the team first, Lupo decided to order for them to retreat and leave their enemies to handle the newly-arrived giants, not giving a damn if the people back at U.S.S. HQ were watching or not. This kind of behavior, her concern for the unit's safety, was why she was nicknamed the group's "wolfmother".

"Wolfpack, retreat! Leave the bastards for the B.O.W.s!" she said.

Not willing to object to that, the rest of the soldiers of Umbrella each stopped their current activities and began making a run for it with Echo Six and their new allies to look on with disbelief and puzzled minds over their choice. As a final bout, Four Eyes turned back and threw in one more Pheromone bomb at the group as a means of hardening their battle with the large B.O.W.s.

"What are they doing?" Willow asked curiously, coughing from the red smoke cloud.

"It looks like they are leaving the battle early." Shona replied.

"They started this shitty situation and try to kill us all, but when a couple of coat-wearing giant freaks suddenly show up, they flee like fucking cowards?" Harley said.

The Wolfpack team escaped through a back alley, unseen by the Tyrants, and were gone. With them vanished, the two Tyrants focused their attention entirely on the remaining targets left.

As soon as they started taking their steps, they were attacked by combined gunfire. The ammunition rounds from the marine's weapons did some additional and slightly piercing damage to the Tyrants' coat uniforms more than Echo Six's guns did. Even Raymond helped out from his perched position, still unseen by anyone. He shot the monsters in their backs and yet they didn't halt their upcoming assault.

Suddenly, Kh'rue and Ha'mak approached at once and blindsided the Tyrants and Alex, Kristine, Jamie and Raymond stopped shooting at once again while those on Echo Six didn't until after seeing the marines' actions. The Sangheilis' cloaking remained unscathed by the confrontation and were still unseen. Not even the Tyrants were able to see them like the other Tyrant couldn't when it was alive. Although they had precise hearing and could track wherever their cloaked opponents were, Kh'rue and Ha'mak would not allow this to happen because they intended to end the two creatures as quickly as possible rather than just fight them first.

Everybody observed as they saw one Tyrant getting its legs brutally sliced off and its midsection was carved open, spilling its blood and insides like a bag of sand that's been cut open. The marines knew that to be Kh'rue's work as it was his fighting style. The crippled and mortally wounded Tyrant tried to crawl away to safety with his guts and organs dragging alongside the ground from every move the monster made, and was stopped when Kh'rue placed both of his hands on the Tyrant's head and violently tore off the creature's head with his mighty, Sangheili-induced strength. The process lasted about 6 to 8 seconds, but when it was done, the body was now a complete mess heavily drenched with its own blood. The creature's spinal column was seen dangling under the head.

The engrossing, graphic scene made Harley, Shona and Party Girl want to vomit as the unwanted feeling of nausea swept over them. The marines showed no signs of disgust like the Echo Six troops because they were already used to seeing it. It was just how Kh'rue worked at disposing his enemies whenever they posed a high threat to him or whoever he worked with.

The other Tyrant creature was simply flipped over and had its neck twisted in a lightning fast snap without being torn off, killing the monster instantly unlike his friend who died a slow, horrid death. That was Ha'mak all right.

When the two creatures were killed, the Echo Six troops were in a state of shock from what they've come to witnessed. Even they had never killed B.O.W.s or U.S.S. troops like that.

"You're welcome." Alex said to break the trance they were under.

With the entire area clear of all enemies, living and undead, Echo Six and the UNSC crew approached each other.

"Well, thanks for your help. Who are you and, most importantly, who or what killed those giant B.O.W.s in such a savage fashion?" Dee-Ay asked them. Raymond was seen coming their way and Kristine quickly informed Echo Six that he was with them since she guessed that they thought he was another enemy.

When questioned about how the T-103's were slaughtered in such a grisly way, which Dee-Ay was dying to know, Ha'mak and Kh'rue immediately de-cloaked themselves and the Echo Six members reacted similar to how Carlos Oliveria did.

"Who the fuckin' hell are they!?" Harley asked, taken aback by their appearances.

"They would be the ones who totally slaughtered those big-ass things. They're also part of our group, so there's no need to fear them." Alex explained.

Echo Six looked confused and the shipwrecked troops weren't sure about whether or not to reveal who they are or just be on their merry way back to the chapel and let Echo Six handle themselves and vice-versa for the space group.

* * *

**WOLFPACK SIDE AGAIN . . .**

* * *

After running for what seemed like forever, the Wolfpack group members found shelter inside an empty city bus and were safe for the time being and used this moment to recover before heading out again to fulfill their mission.

"I think . . . we lost them." said Four Eyes while she was leaning over and breathing heavily.

Lupo took a seat next to Spectre and Bertha who also struggled to calm their own cardiovascular systems. Vector sat opposite of them and Beltway sat by himself.

Beltway reached for his gunshot injury with his fingers and it stung when he touched it.

He couldn't reach because of the width and size of his body suit and so he signaled for any of the others to help him out and Bertha volunteered since she was the team's medic.

The German woman got a good look at what Beltway looked like and wanted to laugh at her teammate's misfortune.

"What happened to you?" She asked.

"I fought one of those other guys inside a fuckin' pizza joint and he gave me one hell of a rough time, that's what happened to me and he was annoying as hell!" Beltway explained harshly, remembering how his stint with the unknown bigmouth went.

Putting the incident aside, Bertha examined the wound and borrowed Vector's knife since Beltway lost his own knife during the big battle and Bertha carried a machete which would not do well in what she was planning to do.

"I'm going to extract the bullet from your back with Vector's knife, so prepare for the pain that is to come. Oh, and whatever you do, please do not yell. It might attract any wandering B.O.W.s that may be within earshot of our position." she said and plunged the tip of her loaned knife into Beltway's wound.

The grueling pain made Beltway want to yell and curse his lungs out, but he did his damnedest to resist the urge and stick with Bertha's instructions It wasn't an easy thing to do.

Next, after getting the bullet in Beltway's back removed, Bertha reached one of her first-aid spray canisters, shook it up for ten seconds and sprayed its contents all over the wound and, like the knife, this also caused powerful, nerve-wrecking stinging pain to Beltway and he struggled to remain quiet during the small operation. How he wished his pain receptors were disabled.

The wound bubbled and stung so bad, but Beltway was determined to brave through it and act macho. Afterwards, Bertha placed a gauze patch over the injury and was finished with her work and she returned to her previous seat. Beltway found and picked up the bullet Bertha took out and stared at it all over with a puzzling look in his eyes. Never had he seen this type of bullet before. It looked different from other sniper rifle rounds. He shrugged the thought off and simply threw the bullet casing away, not caring about it. His job was to complete tasks for Umbrella and blow shit up, not to examine bullets.

When a minute had passed to recover from his treatment, Beltway asked a question. "Any clue who those other fuckers were?"

"If we knew . . . we'd tell you." Spectre said. His tone being out of his broken English rather than from exhaustion from their fight and escape.

"Hey, fuck you!" Beltway sharply responded.

Before things could get out of hand with them, Lupo got between the two.

"Hey, knock it off, both of you! We're lucky to still be living after all we've been through, even after being abandoned by Umbrella for a few hours and escaping from those other soldiers and the Tyrants. We don't need to fight among ourselves!" she said and Beltway and Spectre ceased their squabbling and everyone glared out the bus windows and brainstormed on what to do now. They were still under orders by U.S.S. Command to get to the Umbrella facility and snuff out whoever the spy was.

Taking a little rest within the confines of the bus, Wolfpack brainstormed on a plan on how they were going to reach the facility. They remembered where it was, but they knew they'd have to find another way in due to what happened last time.

When their break time had expired, the team exited the bus and were on their way to the lab.

They later made it to the underground lab via an elevator and a train.

The train stopped soon and the soldiers stepped out and were now in the ruins of Raccoon City's Umbrella facility.

The night of their previous mission in this place flooded their memories. When they escape last time, each of them figured that they would never again have to set foot in this place again. But now they were back to where the outbreak all started. As U.S.S. Command had stated earlier, they were here to locate and eliminate the intruder or intruders that were roaming around the underground complex.

All this for an intruder. To them, it didn't seem worth it at all, but if they wanted to leave Raccoon City once and for all, then they had to proceed with their task.

"I'm not so sure about Command. Can we trust those fuckers at HQ?" Beltway asked, doubtful about their reward for doing their job.

"They've seen what we can do; of course they will extract us!" Bertha assured, although she too had some doubts of her own inside.

"Just for the record, when we finish this fucking job, we should make them pay." Vector said. He felt that Umbrella used them like some kind of doormat and that they needed payback for being left to die.

They gazed the lab's interior, spotting zombies ahead of the other trains limping around stupidly. The team climbed over a stack of crates and killed the creatures.

Vector looked around the train station for any large-sized guns he could use since his was destroyed by Kh'rue back on the surface. For now, all he had to fight with were his knife and handgun. He carried plenty of clips for his pistol since he hardly used it, but that would not be enough to fend off against whatever large threats they may cross with in the facility and he had to use the clips wisely until he was better equipped.

Three of them took the walkway above while the other three searched the train cars for monsters or items.

When the regrouped on the main floor, more zombies attacked them and they were all Crimson Heads.

It was difficult, but the Wolfpack team dominated the Crimson zombies and reached an elevator. But to their surprise, they discovered that the controls were broken, making the elevator unusable.

"The elevator controls have been sabotaged. You'll have to use the train elevator to access the lower levels." Command explained.

_Now he tells us._ Lupo thought.

Spectre saw the control panel to the train elevator and went over and pressed its button. The machine hummed and Spectre silently rejoiced, knowing that their ride would soon come.

But as they waited for their transport to arrive, they faced another problem. More Crimson Head zombies were spotted running toward them.

"More Crimson Heads!" Four Eyes shouted and the group was forced to defend the platform and themselves until the elevator arrived which was taking its sweet time due to how large and heavy it was compared to a regular man-sized elevator transport.

The horrifying, rotting creatures came from all directions non-stop and the troops couldn't remember when they last stocked up on ammunition as the fight, as well as their time spent down here, would eventually deplete what remaining ammo they had and wondered if there happened to be any leftover ammunition near them. They distinctively remembered killing plenty of Dr. Birkin's hired U.B.C.S. bodyguards last time they were here, so they assumed that the U.B.C.S. corpses, which were probably reanimated as zombies by now, might still have some on them that they can use should they run dry.

The battle against the fast, agile Crimson Heads raged on for about seven minutes and by that time, the platform elevator had made its appearance to take the Wolfpack unit away. There was a tram car on the elevator along with some leftover zombies which the group got rid of instantly before boarding.

Everyone boarded the platform except for Vector who wandered off in search of a powerful weapon he needed to help him survive the lab's horrors better than his pistol and knife.

"Where are you going, Vector?" Lupo asked over her radio.

"To find me a bigger gun. Mine was utterly sliced in half during the fight with those people back at the intersection, remember?" Vector replied.

During his raid, Vector happened upon a medium-sized box full of ammo and next to them was another assault rifle that was identical to his previous weapon except that it was dark-blue and he picked it up for examination.

Finding no faults on the object, Vector checked the ammo crate to make sure its contents were usable with his new weapon and he gathered up as much ammo he can and loaded the first clip inside the gun when he realized that it was already empty. Now that he was armed with a replacement rifle, he felt complete again and went to rejoin his team on the platform.

Spectre inspected the tram car for any traps or ambushes and found nothing but a bloodied 44. magnum with a bent nozzle and only two bullets remaining in the chamber, making the gun useless in two ways and the Russian man exited the car.

When the platform brought them all down the shaft, it approached a floor filled with more zombies made up of fallen U.S.S. troops and scientists.

The platform came to a sudden stop right there and the safety barrier separating them from the hungry virus monstrosities lowered itself down, allowing the creatures to board onto the platform. The Umbrella soldiers were trapped with the zombies and they had to find a way to reactivate the elevator while fighting off their enemies.

They took on the intruding zombies with pistols and knives only because, like with the FOREVER group, they felt it was vital to conserve their main weapons for anything larger and more threatening they had a feeling may show up. Even Vector did the same despite him obtaining a new assault rifle just moments ago.

When the zombies were all killed, each person inspected the bodies of the zombie soldiers for any ammo on them, found some and took them.

Another control panel was seen by Lupo and she used it to restart the platform and re-boarded as it gradually hummed to life again and continued downward.

A minute later, the platform ceased again, irritating most of the team.

"Not . . . good." Spectre commented on the issue.

Another group of zombified workers and soldiers found them and along with that came the return of the pesky NE-B parasites from the other facility back at the warehouse where they had to repair the mind of the freakishly-large Nemesis creature.

Wolfpack concentrated most of their gunfire on the parasites first because they remembered what would happen if the organisms possessed any of the zombies here.

But two of the parasite creatures avoided death by Wolfpack and latched themselves onto two zombie victims and soon, they were in control of the bodies and began to charge at the unit.

One came for Vector and he jump-kicked the creature and Bertha, who witnessed the whole thing, whipped out her machete blade and chopped the parasite "head" off and it and the body it formally controlled fell to the ground dead.

Only three regular zombies without parasites remained and Vector quickly ran to the platform's third control panel to activate it while the rest killed off the zombies and parasites.

The power returned, the elevator worked again and the team resumed with their ride again.

One more zombie tried to follow them and it ended up falling over the railing above the entrance and landed head-first on the platform in front of Wolfpack. The landing had broken its neck in an unsightly way as a piece of its own vertebra was sticking out from the side.

To make sure it didn't return as a Crimson Head or an NB-controlled zombie, three of the team members got rid of the body by throwing it off the side of the platform.

The platform had soon arrived to the bottom and made its final stop there. The zombie corpse from before was brutally crushed underneath and nobody on the team cared.

The six people stepped off the platform and made a thorough check of the new place and found more ammunition crates and took some.

Somewhere far from their spot, the sound of an elevator being summoned was heard and it came from the opposite end of a wide corridor, catching Wolfpack's attention.

They investigated the source and spotted someone in a red outfit and black hair standing in front of a regular elevator and carrying a handgun. It was a woman of Asian descent. A large, ugly gash was seen on her right shoulder, making the Wolfpack troops suspect that she was either infected with the T-virus or had a bad run-in with someone else who tried to kill her.

Wolfpack wondered if this person was the one who Umbrella told them to find and kill. The woman didn't look like much, but the team got the strangest feeling that she was tougher than she appeared to be despite outnumbering her 6-to-1.

Because the woman had her back turned to them, the unit made plans of killing her quickly, but she turned around and discovered she was not alone and quickly dove to a crate stack for cover. So much for their plan.

"Huh!? They're already on to me?" the woman whispered to herself.

Without waiting to hear anything from the U.S.S. crew, the woman peeked around the corner of her safe spot and fired her pistol weapon at them, prompting them to also seek cover and return fire. She was doing this to buy herself some time until the door she was near opened.

She was also clever because when she was alone before Wolfpack showed up, she had taken the liberty of placing a few mine traps on the walls of the corridor in the event that someone or something would see her and try to attack while she was busy waiting for the door to open.

If it were not for the well-placed traps separating the Wolfpack group from their new enemy, then they'd be able to reach her on the grounds that they missed every bullet fired by her. Lupo had to give the intruder some credit for planning ahead for this moment, but they would break through soon enough.

Due to a certain obvious reason, Beltway could not disarm all the mines, so he knew they'd have to shoot their way through in order to get to their mysterious assailant.

"Shoot at the mines! That way, we can catch up to that bitch!" he ordered and started things off by destroying the first mine closest to them with one shot from his LMG.

Seeing where he was getting at, the other team members followed Beltway's example and aimed at the mines and shot them all, blowing them up too.

The woman in red stopped to reload her weapon of choice and resumed attacking.

Later during the fight, she saw to her surprise that the soldiers had gotten rid of a 3rd of her mine trap so quickly. She worried that if the only door to her freedom didn't open in time, they would capture and/or kill her.

With most of the hallway was almost clear of the bombs, Wolfpack crouched their way through the halls. But they still had to keep ducking behind some crates there to protect themselves from the shooter.

To get rid of the final two mines ahead, one soldier tossed a grenade toward them and all three explosives unleash a combined blast. The woman's traps were no more and her gun went dry again and didn't have enough time to reload, meaning Wolfpack was now free to move in on her and she was in peril.

But she refused to give in as she threw a grenade of her own. It was in incineration grenade.

"Grenade!" Lupo yelled. Everybody except the woman remained in position behind their crate covers as the fire grenade detonated and harmed no one.

The woman let out a toned-down sigh of frustration and reloaded her gun again. Before she could use it, the door she was waiting for to open finally did and she looked with glee in her eyes.

Without saying anything such as a smart remark or such, she tossed a flash grenade back at Wolfpack and it disabled them long enough for their enemy to make her escape to freedom.

When the effects had ceased, the unit learned she was gone and grew disappointed.

"She ran away!" Spectre said. Now they had to chase after the infiltrator which would take a very long time to do. With the underground lab being gigantic, the spy could've run off anywhere by now.

"Do you think she's the intruder Command told us about?" Four Eyes asked.

"Command said there was more than one spy down here, so she must be one of them." Vector replied. In an ironic twist, he was correct about the woman being a spy. Whoever the unnamed shooter was with on the other hand, were not spies at all. They were intruders, but not spies.

They darted through the same door spot their foe ran through, but they didn't see her anywhere in the new catwalk bridge balcony they stood in. The area was outright massive. There were three bridges within their sights. They crossed one bridge and wandered into another corridor, a smaller one this time, hoping it would lead deeper into the lab and maybe even that woman.

In a large place, they saw another platform elevator along with more annoying virus zombies groaning their usual tone of death and hunger.

Terminating the creatures, the Wolfpack crew boarded the new platform, activated its switch and the elevator began its descent.

The ride was irritatingly slow like the other platform, which prompted Beltway to yell "Hurry the fuck up!" Like that was going to speed things up.

But just as he said those words, a faint familiar hissing perked their ears and echoed throughout the platform tunnel.

"Lickers inbound!" Bertha cried out. They looked around for the creatures and saw the dastardly, skinless mutants climbing out of a vent shaft and headed for the paramilitary group.

With the very limited spacing the platform provided, surviving the upcoming Licker invasion was not going to be easy, but they were confident that they could do it. They survived situations more drastic and dangerous than this all night.

Four Eyes fired her machine gun weapon at one Licker until it lost its grip on the tunnel wall and landed splat on the platform floor in front of her.

Spectre used his militia rifle on two Lickers, killing one, but he was nearly jumped on by the other because his shooting left him open. He withdrew his knife and stuck it in the beast's naked brain several times until he had killed it.

Another Licker had targeted Bertha and lashed its tongue at her. Bertha dodged by stepping to one side and grabbed the outstretched tongue and pulled at it to bring the Licker onto the elevator with her. When the creature was on the ground, Bertha grabbed the back of its head and quickly and fiercely started bashing its head and face against the platform's rail bar without end.

The Licker screeched and tried to free itself, but the female covert operative kept up her inhumane assault until the Licker could tolerate it no more and died from its injuries. Its face was a total mess. Bertha threw the body overboard below, never to be seen again.

Eventually, the Licker invaders were all killed by Wolfpack.

By the time the platform brought the group to its ending point, Wolfpack were greeted by more zombies, all of them under parasite control.

"Ugh! I fucking hate these things!" Beltway reacted after seeing them.

"You're telling me!" Vector responded and the team attacked the creatures in order to proceed.

Wolfpack was free to proceed once the place was clear of virus enemies. This time when they approached and entered another sliding door, they all found themselves inside a very enormous area with more catwalk bridges above and a circular-shaped pond below that was full of boiling, hot melted iron material that resembled lava or magma.

The underrated temperature of that very room began to increase the body heat of each Wolfpack soldier on account of their leather uniforms.

"Son of a bitch, it's fucking hot in here!" Beltway complained. Bertha wanted to tell Beltway to quit complaining, but by god, he was right. The heat of the magma pit and their uniforms was getting tense every passing second and even she couldn't take it anymore.

They still had to finish their mission and find that woman and whoever else she may have been in league with.

They jogged to a bridge leading upward to another level and were suddenly prey to an ambush by several Hunter B.O.W.s!

"MA-121!" Lupo yelled and the group instantly took strong action against the deadly reptile creatures.

One Hunter leaped for Lupo with its right talon claw and she ducked its attack and roundhouse kicked it off the bridge and down to its fiery doom below where it thrashed around and bellowed quite savagely from being burnt alive in the hot pond.

After taking on the Hunters and ensuring a victory over them, the team was about to move on when an alarm suddenly blared through the area's speaker intercoms and was accompanied by a shocking, hair-raising announcement.

**"THE SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE HAD BEEN ACTIVATED! REPEAT: THE SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED! THIS SEQUENCE MAY NOT BE ABORTED! ALL EMPLOYEES PROCEED TO THE EMERGENCY CAR AT THE BOTTOM PLATFORM!"**

When those electronic words were spoken, the Wolfpack unit not only got a huge case of chills and dread running all over their bodies, they also had a feeling that they were going to receive a very rowdy, angry response from U.S.S. Command in a matter of seconds.

Then it came true.

"What the hell is going on!? Why is the self-destruct sequence active!? GET TO THE BOTTOM PLATFORM!" If they had betted over how their boss would have reacted to the self-destruct news, someone would have lost just now. Each got a feeling that the woman spy must have been responsible for rigging this entire lab to go sky high. Who else but them knew how to trigger the self-destruction sequence?

A strong sense of adrenaline coarsely through their veins, the squad picked up the pace and ran through another sliding door that led them to the very place where they had first arrived to kill William Birkin and steal his virus research, the place where Raccoon's troubles had began.

They sprinted to a flight of stairs they hadn't taken before and soon, they reached a security room filled with monitor screens that displayed live and past footage of the entire laboratory. Some didn't work and they didn't care.

One screen was showing a lab room filled with loose zombies and more Hunters breaking out of their cryotubes.

It wasn't until they eyed another monitor screen that filled them with interest. It was showing feed of a group of people dealing with a T-103 Tyrant that was after them.

They were unsure if the footage they were seeing was live or a recording of an earlier event.

One of those people in the footage was a male R.P.D. police officer whom Wolfpack correctly guessed was the exact same survivor they were supposed to murder back on the surface. They also realized that he must have been the person responsible for delaying their previous ride out of the city upon its arrival after they were finished with their business inside the police station. They could not believe that they were nearly killed by the creatures all night because of that man.

They also happened to see the woman they fought with before standing side by side with the cop and his friends who were unfamiliar to Wolfpack. At least they now knew where their target was as well as the cop that was meant to die by their hand. The other survivors in the footage were a woman dressed in motorcycle garb who appeared to be no older than 19 or 20 years of age, a young girl child wearing a school uniform and was unconscious while draped over the biker woman and two large figures whom were of unknown origin and descent.

Taking a closer look, Vector recently noticed that one of those survivors bore a striking resemblance to that other individual he fought with back at the street intersection, the one that nearly killed him and completely bisected his assault rifle gun in half with an unseen yet odd-looking blade weapon of great power. Both of the strange-looking people were also wearing highly decorative, battle armor or suits with helmets that concealed their faces and they each carried different and odd weapons on their suits. Their appearances greatly startled the observing Wolfpack soldiers.

_Just who the hell are those guys and what connection could they possibly have with that guy who sliced my fucking rifle in two?_ Vector thought.

The screen featured the Tyrant doing battle with the armored duo and they latched themselves onto the B.O.W. and worked together on restraining him. Then the creature toppled over the side of the bridge and managed to drag one of his attackers down with him below.

The police officer, his fellow survivors and the Asian woman stared down at the commotion.

"I think that's the cop we failed to kill hours ago near the police station. Plus who could those other people with him be?" Lupo said and questioned.

No one else knew and, unable to stay and view the whole thing at a time in part because of the lab's countdown to destruction, Vector fast-forwarded the tape's footage, proving that it was all pre-taped after all, until he got to a scene depicting the cop cradling the woman spy in his arms at the bottom of either the same catwalk balcony from before or another one. She appeared to have sustained mortal injuries Wolfpack couldn't quite know although they probably had an idea that the Tyrant must've done it. The two were exchanging unheard words and then they kissed each other for a brief moment before the woman succumbed to her injuries and died.

The cop tried to wake her, but she didn't do so and he looked greatly upset over her death.

The rest of the tape showed the cop being consulted by the armored stranger that was seen yanked off the bridge by the Tyrant previously. After a while, the cop and his ally left the woman's body behind and continued on without her.

The tape ended there. Only the part with the police officer and the woman being together was live while the first half of the tape was from earlier.

"It's the cop. He's with that girl and stranger." Spectre replied, the "girl" being the biker woman.

They were getting another incoming transmission from their boss about what they just saw.

"Delta Team! We've identified the police officer as Leon S. Kennedy, a newcomer to the city's police force. He's already gained access to classified areas of the facility and is likely in possession of sensitive information. Shut down the self-destruct system and get rid of him!"

"But Command, it doesn't look like there's a way to disable the self-destruct mechanism." Lupo protest. Although, she and Wolfpack never helped in creating the underground facility, she somehow knew that turning the sequence off was an impossibility. Once it was active, the entire lab was doomed to go out with a bang no matter what.

"How the hell could this happen!? You let that cop get away and now he's ransacking our facility!? Kill them! Kill all of them!" Command said.

"Understood. We'll hunt down Leon Kennedy." Lupo assured.

"Command, what about those other people he's with? Vector asked.

"We're not completely sure who they are and we don't care! What we're sure of is that they must also die with that cop and his friends since they are witnesses to our deeds too! We'll start looking them up as soon as possible and let you know later when we have an answer. Right now, they're in the power room. Go!" said Command.

Wolfpack exited the monitor room and ran off. Despite the seriousness of their current situation, the team still had a final shot at killing Leon Kennedy and apparently his band of fellow survivors. From their point of view, they had to finish the job. They wanted out of Raccoon City and this was their final opportunity chance.

They also realized another advantage of Leon's death; if they were to fail at killing him and his friends by their own hands, then the eventual destruction of the facility should do the job for them. It looked as if their targets were screwed big time either way.

"REPEAT: ALL EMPLOYEES PROCEED TO THE BOTTOM PLATFORM!" said the mechanical voice.

Wolfpack entered a large B.O.W. containment room and neutralized any creature that got in their way whilst moving past them.

During that time, a few more extra Hunters broke free of their tube incasings and were ready for a fight against Wolfpack.

"Hunters on our six!" Spectre said.

"Just run past these things! We'd just be wasting time fighting them!" Lupo said.

The troops simply whizzed right past the hungry hands of the zombies, but the Hunters had no trouble in catching up to them and Wolfpack held them back with gunfire while running. There were no Crimson Heads or parasite zombies present in the area and that was a good thing.

A sliding door they reached was taking too long to open as it slid upward slowly, thinning the team's patience.

"Come on! Open faster you fucking door!" Beltway said angrily.

As they waited, the Hunters and zombies were catching up and Wolfpack turned their weapons on them to hold them back a little longer.

Soon, the door was open just high enough for the troops to crawl or limbo underneath.

Spectre threw a frag grenade at the monsters to slow them down or kill them and it did. One Hunter died and the others were too physically weak to move fast, their prey had gotten away.

"Hurry up and find those intruders!" U.S.S. Command bellowed into their earpieces.

_Say it, don't scream it!_ One of them thought irritably.

Approaching the other side quickly, the unit realized that they were led back to the very same spot where they first met with HUNK prior to their mission on assassinating Dr. Birkin and stealing his research. It's been days when all of that happened, but to them, it felt like hours had passed since they last came here.

Finding a ladder nearby, which they did not notice before, the group quickly took it upward.

They appeared at another section of the furnace place, which also happened to be where they saw Leon and his friends in the monitor room and, low and behold, more Hunters crashed the party and attacked the Wolfpack soldiers.

The alarm inspired the group to just run and gun again since they had no time to stay and fight the damned beasts.

While on the move, they each noticed something amiss. The body of the woman they saw die on the tape was nowhere to be found at all at the catwalk's bottom.

"Hey, where's that dead woman?" Bertha questioned.

Judging from the woman's shoulder injury from their first encounter and on the tape, Bertha quickly assumed that the mystery woman had probably already mutated into a zombie and must have walked off the edge of where she was last seen with the cop and fell in the lava pool and died horribly. As mentioned before, her injury looked too abnormal to be brought on by a bullet or a knife and thought that it was caused by a virus creature. Well, it was, but not by a T-virus monster as they thought.

"Spread out! They've got to be around here somewhere!" Vector said.

As they went their ways, they were followed by Crimson Heads and Wolfpack killed them all and kept moving until they discovered another platform elevator and hurried to it.

Lupo activated the elevator's button and allowed the platform to do its job of transporting the U.S.S. agents to safety. It was taking them upwards.

They team hoped that they wouldn't have to face any more B.O.W.s on the elevator like last time. It's like being boxed in a small space during an ambush and having no way out.

Suddenly the elevator ceased its activity like the previous platform had done, but the odd thing about that was that its electrical power was still active this time and the group became confused and wondered how this was possible. What could have stopped their ride?

They walked to the platform's edge areas and looked down and quickly discovered the cause of their problem: below their very feet was a T-103 climbing the elevator shaft and toward the elevator itself. Wolfpack quickly analyzed that this creature was the same one from the footage that fell off the catwalk bridge and supposedly died by the hands of Leon's unknown armor-wearing allies.

The monster was absent of its trench coat and latex leather gloves as the furnace pit must have melted away its clothing, revealing a nude and tightly toned form which was literally glowing hot, a side effect from its nasty dip. On top of that,it also revealed a glowing heart-like part on its right pec and its hands were now gigantic, deadly claws that were sure to rip through pure, cranium steel like paper mache!

"Holy shit! That's a T-103 without its power limiter!" Spectre yelled in fear.

The new Tyrant climbed aboard the elevator and roared while raising its claws in the air. Without its power limiter, a.k.a. its trench coat, the man-like beast was nearly twice as dangerous as ever! Plus, since it looked like a deadly confrontation was about to happen on the platform, maneuvering around would serve as a con for Wolfpack and make it into a pro for the coat-less Tyrant!

In order to rid themselves of the new threat, the team was going to have to knock the enemy monster off the platform. The glowing organ on the Tyrant's chest made Wolfpack assume that it was the creature's main weak point and they all aimed their gunfire on the monster.

The Tyrant didn't appear to be harmed by the raging gunfire and it just simply approached the team and lashed out with its claws and missed all six members.

The monster roared again, exposing its external organ to the soldiers.

Vector took a few shots at the organ with his replacement rifle an the Tyrant bellowed in pain.

"Target its glowing heart!" he said to the others. They each attacked the heart, but the Tyrant soon shielded it with one claw, letting its hand take the heat.

After scoring some hits on the Tyrant's heart despite it often protecting it with its claws, it roared again and Vector and Beltway, them being the most physically strong ones in the group, cooperated to shove the dangerous creature off the platform before it could attack again football-style and down it went.

Just when they thought they were safe at last, they were met with more Lickers from above.

"Son of a bitch!" Beltway vented.

However, the Lickers were not the only hazard in Wolfpack's way. As they continued riding up now that the Tyrant was no longer on the elevator, a few pipes above their heads burst and started spewing deadly flame streams at opposite ends of each other. The way to get through them all unharmed was to simply stand one one end where parts of the flames couldn't reach them. Getting caught in those scorching flames even once had obvious and dire consequences even a toddler child could figure out.

Later after carefully surviving the flame traps and the Lickers at the same time, two more Lickers appeared, but before they can assume attacking positions, they were caught and brutally slain by the super Tyrant who was crawling all the way back to the platform, stopping the ride yet again. It disposed of the Licker corpses and hopped back on the elevator to continue battle with Wolfpack.

"Concentrating fire!" Lupo shouted and everyone emptied their weapon's ammo on the powerful B.O.W. again.

With the platform stranding all riders and the Tyrant above the fire traps by a mere few feet, one slip-up meant a fiery and slow horrible death.

The flames inspired an idea among Wolfpack. Their plan was to force or trick the Tyrant foe off the platform and into the fire streams below, possibly killing it for good.

It went on another claw-swiping fit again and managed to knock down Beltway who nearly fell off the edge of the platform, making his heart race and adrenaline flow through him in a stinging fashion.

At some point during the battle, the monster leaped at Bertha and Lupo who were trapped in a corner and barely missed stabbing them and, as planned by the unit, it fell off the platform's edge by accident and it was heard yelling in a rage as it was once again cooked alive by the searing heat as it fell deep down in the shaft and presumably landing below.

With the Tyrant out of the way, the elevator resumed its operational duty again and made it to its intended destination where the group exited off the platform and took a short break before continuing their quest of finding Leon and his friends.

The fires from the shaft still spewed and cackled endlessly.

"Is it dead?" Vector asked and nobody but their own boss responded to his question.

"It's not dead. But it shouldn't be back anytime soon."

"Command," said Bertha. "we're still in pursuit of Leon S. Kennedy. We need assistance, over."

"We've elevated Leon Kennedy to be a priority target. He must not be allowed to escape the city. You better hope there's a way to fix this." said Command.

The members groaned from exhaustion and looked for a path of their new surroundings or tried thinking up a plan that may help them reach their target faster before the complex lab was buried forever.

"However, to aid you in your mission, we've noticed six more U.S.S. personnel inside the laboratory with you. They should be of some help to you as you wish."

"Do you know where that police officer could be right now?" Lupo asked.

"We have accommodated your request to locate priority Leon S. Kennedy. Stand by."

They waited for a response (which, to them, felt was an impossible thing to do inside a place that was set to blow) and finally got one.

"Delta Team, we've just discovered Kennedy's whereabouts and learned more about him and the survivors he's with. Well, most of them. The females are Claire Redfield, the sister of S.T.A.R.S. member Chris Redfield, and Dr. Birkin's own daughter, Sherry. The other two with them that you saw on the monitors are very difficult to identify at this time. They are shrouded in mystery I'm afraid. All we know about them is that they have been protecting the cop, the young woman and the Birkin child for a while and they've been butchering our B.O.W.s with very little trouble.

Anyway, about their whereabouts in the lab, we've zeroed in on their location on an elevator that's taking them to the facility's main train yard to make their escape. Apparently, Sherry was infected with the G-virus by her mutated father at some point before coming down here and was given an antigen. The vaccine was lost along with the lab, but the antigen is still inside of her. Neutralize Leon, Claire and those companions of theirs and deliver Sherry to Umbrella alive and unharmed. This is your last chance, Delta Team!"

"Objective confirmed. Wolfpack is on the move. Over and out." said Lupo.

The transmission ended and the Wolfpack unit moved out again. They now knew where their intended targets were and they were to receive help from some friendly U.S.S. troops Command said were wandering in the lab. If all went according to plan, they would finally earn their tickets to freedom and possibly still receive a hefty paycheck for their grueling work.

"We can't trust Umbrella. We need insurance." Spectre stated. Like his teammates, he still carried some doubts about their employer and needed to be absolutely sure that they keep their side of the deal and not turn on them again. Beltway had said so himself when they were granted their second chance at redemption.

"You mean we use Leon as some kind of leverage against Umbrella and bargain with them for another type of reward?" Four Eyes asked.

"Precisely my point." Spectre answered.

"That's fuckin' crazy! Count me in." Beltway agreed.

Everyone else agreed with Spectre's plan. As Beltway said, they needed to pay Umbrella back for dumping them in the city.

Later during their hunt for Kennedy and his allies, the team bumped into the other set of Umbrella soldiers they were informed of. Like them, there were only six people of this new team.

"No time for introductions. We are in need of your help in seeking a group of survivors that are running around in this doomed place and they must be killed as ordered by Umbrella. Will you help us?" Lupo quickly told them.

"Yes, we can. Where do we begin the search for these survivors?" one asked her.

Thinking fast, Lupo mentioned the train yard area and suggested that the Wolfpack team lead the way since they knew where it was obviously and hurried there, ready to complete their hit order against their victims. They believed that together, they could outnumber and outmatch their foes.

To help speed things up after finding the survivors, Lupo quickly educated the new U.S.S. group about who their targets were and why she and the Wolfpack unit were instructed to terminate them all with the exception of Sherry Birkin with whom Umbrella had requested to be taken prisoner rather than be killed.

As they turned a sharp corner, the entire U.S.S. group fell prey to an ambush by yet another rowdy crowd of Crimson Head and parasitic zombies. The sight of the parasitic zombies horrified several of the new soldiers, despite them being down here in the lab where the creatures were created.

"What the fuck are those things!?" one of them questioned with fear.

Most of the undead creatures focused more on Wolfpack instead of the other soldiers and chased after them, forcing Delta Team to stay behind to fight them all off.

"The train yard is closeby! Go and find those survivors! We'll catch up with you momentarily!" Lupo said to them, shoving away a Crimson Head.

With not a lot of time on their hands, the other troops obeyed her and ran off in the direction they believed the French woman meant.

They took a few more turns and narrowly avoided a hissing pipe that would have burnt them with its high-pressure contents.

A couple of minutes later, the squad managed to finally reach the train yard area and were now face to face with the survivor group they learned of from Luop.

Both parties exchanged words upon first meeting. The Umbrella soldiers claimed to have spied on them all along during their bout in Raccoon City although this was only a false statement to throw them off and they demanded that they surrender the unconscious Sherry Birkin to them under the threat of facing dire consequences.

The survivors refused to heed to their menacing order and soon, both sides sprang into action with the Umbrella troops suffering a heavy and violent loss at the hands of the two survivors in the armor suits who seemed to have been well-trained in military combat. Their companions, the cop, woman and infected girl, were literally shielded by a bubble-like dome over them that acted like some energy force field. Their end was swift and brutal with the exception of the last U.S.S. member who was slowly and painfully killed by the large one with the dome-covered helmet.

Meanwhile, after Wolfpack had slayed the zombies, they followed the same exact path that their backup unit took and they soon also arrived at the train yard where their targets were seen about to board one of the trains after handling the backup unit who were seen laying dead with their blood, severed limbs and entrails spilled everywhere on the cold, hard ground. They have been terribly mutilated in the worst, possible way. Their killers, the ones in armor, were stained with some of the soldiers' blood and, as seen on the tape, they carried very odd-looking weaponry on their person. One held a machete in his hand that was pretty much stained with blood from every creature killed by it as well as the blood of the soldiers they put down just now and the other held in his large, weird hands two handles that were producing white colored, glowing blades that looked mighty deadly. The person's strange sword weapons looked like something out of a science-fiction movie or comic book.

"More of those soldiers have made their presence here!" said the one with the glowing sword blades.

_What did they fucking do to our guys!?_ Beltway thought harshly. The manner of which the troops were slaughtered was as if a B.O.W. of tremendous height and strength had done away with them. The sight frightened him a little and his teammates and they tried to keep a poker face, masks or no masks. Whoever they large people were, they really meant business when it came to self-defense of defense of their allies.

They were warned by the woman now identified as Claire Redfield to keep their distance away from her and her group and aimed her gun, a pistol, at them to prove her seriousness.

Remembering their plan from earlier and seeing now as a golden opportunity to use it, Lupo was about to make the call to their boss to begin negotiations, not knowing if the survivors were going to attack the team at random or not, when suddenly something shook the entire yard. Everyone in the train yard believed it to be just another part of the self-destruct sequence, but then a wall close to them burst open and revealed the same T-103 creature Wolfpack and Leon and his own group faced a while ago.

"Aw, hell! Not another Tyrant model!" said Lupo.

The Wolfpack unit believed that it was another uncontrollable Tyrant and they were blissfully unaware that this was the same monster from before until they barely remembered their boss saying that the creature was not dead just because it was knocked off the elevator.

Before anyone can do anything about the Tyrant, the NE-B parasites had made another return from the train yard's ventilation shaft systems and launched an immediate attack upon the Tyrant.

Nobody moved or said a word as they watched the Tyrant fight off the parasitic invaders until they successfully overwhelmed and then mutated the giant into an even more powerful and grotesque version of its former self. It was larger and it now sported parasitic limbs from its back which it used to help support itself in balance and movement like a person with four mechanical arms. These new features made the monster extra menacing.

"Just peachy! That's like the 4th or 5th Tyrant model to turn on us!" Beltway said under his breath, not caring about the exact amount of Tyrants they have battled.

Because of the new threat standing before them ready to rip everybody to pieces with its newfound power, both sides had to settle on a temporary truce until the creature was dead.

Claire climbed onto the train and shut the door when she was in, leaving the rest to handle the job of killing the new abomination, which they had to accomplish in no less than 10 minutes before the lab was destroyed and they with it.

If they did not succeed and escape in time, then this place would be their tomb.

* * *

**My god, it's been exactly one year since I last posted a chapter. Sorry it took me so long to finish and post this chapter everyone. It's just that I've been so occupied by other things such as work, school, writer's block and so on and so forth. I'm not the only one, though.**

**I had to watch Resident Evil and Halo gameplay videos on Youtube and gather some info on both universes online dozens of times during whatever freetime I got in order to at least try getting most of the chapter's stuff correct. I'm not 100 percent sure if I got it right and my brain's a little scrambled at the time of this message. As I said before, I even added some Halo 4 stuff here to make parts of the game part of the story.**

**I also took the liberty of altering and/or writing out some things, events and dialog from the games here in order to strengthen their relation to the storyline and also because parts of what were done or said in the games either made no sense, were non-canon or didn't feel right to me.**

**Well, now that I've given you what you've wanted, I think I'm gonna take a week or two off from writing to gather myself before I start on the next chapter. I hope some of you didn't wander off thinking that my story was dead. To those who still stuck by me, go spread the word to whoever left my "fan club", if you can find them, and tell 'em that Halohazard is back in business.**

**Till next time.**


	13. The Escape And The Big Reveal

**Now that I've finally gotten the previous chapter out of the way (and it only took me a whole friggin' year to do it), it is now time to move on to the next part of my story. Well, the RE2 part anyway. The RE3 side will begin after this.**

* * *

The powerful, parasitically-fused Tyrant growled menacingly as it moved about slowly, eyeing everyone that opposed it as it was trying to select whom it would attack first. The Wolfpack troops, the wounded R.P.D. officer, the UNSC Spartan 2 commando and the Covenant Separatist co-founder copied the creature's actions. Even those two had to take extra caution against this new monstrous behemoth despite their battle capabilities. They and Leon had to make sure to keep the monster away from Claire and Sherry's train at all costs.

The lab's self-destruct timer was nearing its expiration limit and the eventual catastrophic result was going to claim everybody and possibly the creature in that train yard unless one of the two sides of enemies made the first move that would ultimately decide the outcome and their fates.

Not willing to wait any longer, Vector thought _Fuck it!_ and fired his assault rifle at the behemoth monster, hitting it in the chest area.

Even though Vector's bullets did not harm anything important on the beast, the man's action sparked the Tyrant's uncontrollable rage and off it went in a wild sprint toward its foes. With the parasites fused with its body and its size having increased as a side effect, the towering B.O.W. was bound to be three times more dangerous and lethal than that of its two previous incarnations. This was going to be one hell of a fight.

Its first targets were the Wolfpack unit being in part that one of them provoked it. The Tyrant swiped one of its giant shoulder tentacles at them and missed.

As with the other Tyrants the team faced mere hours ago along with this one back on the platform that brought them here, it didn't care whom it fought with. Umbrella member or not, spilling blood was the only instinct it had in its altered, infected mind right now. It could not be contained in anyway and by anyone anymore.

When the creature eyed Leon for a brief second after turning its head in search of the nearest victim, it locked eyes with him and made a roar that probably sounded like it remembered him from the police station when it suffered a vicious beating at the hands of John-117.

Acting on instinct, Leon unloaded as many shotgun rounds at the monster non-stop. He was able to properly hold the weapon now than he had done previously, he was no fast healer, but it was possibly a result of an adrenaline rush due to the dangerous situation unfolding. Now he was glad that he and Claire had stocked up on plenty of ammunition all throughout their terrifying journey in the infested city due to Thel and John doing almost all of the killing during the night and now was an extremely perfect time to use most of it on the large, rampaging B.O.W. and he had lots to go around. While he and Claire both carried separate bags to hold their goodies, his bag was filled with mostly shotgun and handgun ammo since those were the only firearms he had with him.

Leon was careful to hide his bag out of view from Wolfpack as a precaution because he didn't trust them one bit despite their full cooperation against the monster.

Spectre's gun ran dry on ammo and he had to stop to reload. When he finished and was about to fire again, he was viciously slapped away by one of the Tyrant's parasitic appendages and was sent flying backwards and plowed into a supply of leftover wooden crate boxes. This was a complete mirroring of what happened to Lupo during their scuffle against Echo Six.

Spectre uttered something explicit about the Tyrant in Russian as he was recovering from the impact. He checked his gun for damage and returned to the fight. Despite his age, he suffered nothing major and was able-bodied. His back did ache though, no doubt. That impact was very, very rough.

Mr. X chased after Leon when the latter was out of shells in his shotgun and switched to his handgun rather than waste time reloading and eventually trapped him into a corner with no means of escape.

"Oh, shit!" Leon yelped, believing he was screwed.

As the Tyrant prepared to initiate the finishing blow, it was stopped by Thel 'Vadam who fired at the monster with his plasma rifle to sway its attention away from Leon. Ignoring the cop, the beast chose to go after the Sangheili instead.

Thel kept shooting until his gun reached its overheating point and began to ventilate itself, rendering it useless for a few seconds.

He switched to one energy sword and evaded the Tyrant's tentacle stabbing attack and when the same tentacle repeated its stab attack, with precise timing, the alien lashed his sword out and dismembered that very limb in one fast swipe, cutting it off completely despite the appendage's thickness.

The severed tentacle flopped on the ground like a fish separated from its watery habitat and the Tyrant let out a violent scream with such ferocity that surpassed a yelling noise of a regular type of its kind. Its injured limb heavily bled a combination of dark green and red blood( the green blood was from the parasites). However, that didn't stop the creature because the affected tentacle immediately started to regenerate itself until it was fully healed and ready to go.

Thel forgot that this abhorrent thing was able to regenerate damaged flesh and, thanks to the parasites' influence, lost body parts, as it had done so last time when he first met and battled the monster at the police station.

The Wolfpack team saw what the armored alien did and were dumbstruck with awe. Vector was more stunned by the event as his teammates, remembering his short brawl with Kh'rue on the surface. The latter used a similar weapon of great power, only that time, it was nearly camouflaged along with its wielder. At that time, he thought he was just suffering from some concussion-biased hallucinations because of the physical trauma brought onto him from the fight with another one of Thel's armored kind or from killing monsters all night, but now he knew he wasn't crazy as he had thought.

Bertha switched for her hypo gun and fired three darts filled with her anti-B.O.W. drugs at the Tyrant.

The projectiles pierced into Mr. X's enlarged right arm and the embedded darts immediately went to work in injecting their harmful substances into the Tyrant's affected limb and pretty soon, the drugs had spread all throughout the monster's mutated body and caused a great deal of pain and discomfort to the virus-infected host.

Vector whipped out a frag grenade, cooked it(slang term for holding an active grenade or other handheld explosive for a few seconds before throwing it) and hurled it at the Tyrant.

"Fire in the hole!" the U.S.S. soldier yelled out.

Mr. X saw what Vector threw in its direction and, with its right arm useless all thanks to Bertha's dart drugs, it caught the grenade in its left hand. It was clueless about the explosive device and didn't know what to do with it until the grenade spoke for itself by exploding in its hand, blowing its entire arm clean off!

The titanic B.O.W. flailed what was left of its limb all over the air like a crazy drunk out of his/her mind, splattering blood everywhere and knelt down to tend to its injury.

Like before, the arm started undergoing its regeneration process. It was at this moment that everybody in that train yard fired all of their weapons at the abomination.

Taking notice of some of the glowing spot areas on the creature's enormous form, John had a strong hunch that they were somehow the Tyrant's own Achilles Heel.

To see if his guess was correct, John started out small by firing one shot with his handgun at one of those spots and the creature's painful reaction from said shot confirmed the Spartan's guess.

"So those illuminating spots are the thing's weakness. Then we must target those areas." Cortana stated and shared this information with Thel via his helmet radio.

Thel, seeing for himself what Cortana was talking about, understood on how to bring the Umbrella beast down and he and John made a lightning-fast sprint toward the injured Mr. X and launched a full-combined assault on the monster's points of interest.

John switched to his assault rifle and fired a barrage of bullets into the circles and Thel 'Vadam used his plasma rifle again in one hand and his energy sword weapon in the opposite hand.

The T-103 screeched in irritation as the duo did their very best to subdue the monster.

Wolfpack and Leon stopped shooting to watch the action unfolding although they still kept their firearms trained on Mr. X in the event the creature overwhelmed the two attacking it and focused on them again.

"Motherdamn! That thing's getting his ass whooped by those fuckin' robots!" Beltway exclaimed.

At that time, Leon was surprised that the black ops unit hadn't even bothered to go after him while John and Thel were busy killing the dangerous monster. Their absence was leaving him wide open for punishment from them and yet there they were, standing there like zombies(not the infected kind, the brainwashed kind). Not caring to know why they weren't chasing him, the lone cop slipped away from sight and ducked behind the train sheltering Claire and Sherry and began placing more shells into his shotgun now that he had the chance to do so. He cocked his head up every time he loaded a shell to make sure he wasn't being followed by the Wolfpack troops or any leftover zombies.

During the skirmish, John's rifle ran dry again and his other rifle was knocked off his form and so, like Leon earlier, he lacked any time to reload and he let his empty gun fall away and switched for his machete and endlessly swiped and stabbed at the monster's bright, orange points while avoiding the enemy's tentacle limbs that tried to interfere in his attack.

Thel hacked away at the tentacles to keep them off of John and himself. They just kept regrowing after every cut, but he didn't stop.

The alien leaped on the creature's back and was about to make a go for the creature's head in hopes that not even the monster's healing ability could save it from that sort of method when the Tyrant rose and flung him off.

Since Mr. X was up again and rather than return to attacking, it started to expel something small, alive and familiar to everybody.

The Tyrant's move reminded Leon and John of the slug creature that fatally burst out of Ben back in the holding cell block.

What Mr. X had just conjured were seventeen of the NE-B parasite species that were responsible for their host's horrible metamorphosis from the start of the fight.

Currently under the Tyrant's command, half of the parasites crawled toward the survivors while the second half made their way to an unnoticed spot that was filled with dead zombies and soon, those zombies were resurrected and were now personal property of the parasites that controlled them.

The parasitic organisms resurfaced Thel, John and Cortana's memories of the Flood species. The way the NE-B creatures looked and behaved greatly mirrored their future equivalents: possessing corpses and converting them into their vicious servants. The Flood did those things, too.

The parasite zombies screeched and ran head-on at the people that defied their master.

Wolfpack and Leon opened fire at the parasites and the possessed zombies while Thel and John were still in the works of killing Mr. X.

Leon used up the shells in his shotgun again and rather than reload again which was starting to bug him, he swapped for his magnum revolver and resumed his duties.

Lupo pressed a button on her suit and a whitish glow surrounded her body. She was using her damage-resistant ability, the same feature Dee-Ay of Echo Six had.

One of the zombies slashed at her with its extended claws, but that didn't do any harm to the French woman in any way and she shoved the creature down with both hands and stomped on the vulnerable parasite itself, killing it and rendering the rotting body useless once again.

Four Eyes took out a pheromone bomb, activated it and threw it at the Tyrant's location. She didn't care if her device killed the soldier and alien or not, she just wanted the zombies away from herself and her team.

John and Thel did not notice the virologist's chemical weapon until the bomb itself released its (to Wolfpack) familiar crimson cloud and blanketed all three beings from head to toe.

"Is this some kind of toxic gas?" John questioned upon seeing what was going on.

"No, it's a pheromone chemical and I think it has something to do with the zombie creatures." Cortana explained, getting the unpleasant feeling that she was correct.

Upon sensing the presence of the pheromone cloud, the remaining parasite zombies stopped their attack on the survivors, turned around and ran to the cloud and but and scratched at the Tyrant in a wild frenzy.

They also didn't hesitate to attack Thel and John as well since they too were drenched in the irresistible gas, causing them to balance between fending off the zombies and Mr. X.

The crazed zombies were brutally killed by Mr. X and it briefly returned to the fight. It managed to fling the Spartan commando and he flew and crashed against another train opposite from the one Claire and Sherry housed themselves in and was now trying to do the same to Thel.

The impact did not harm the Master Chief much than it would were he without his armor and build, but it did knock the wind out of him and sparked his armor shield for a split second. The crash also left a brief dent on the train's side where John was smashed against.

John stood up and gave himself a quick inspection for damages. When he eyed his grenades, he looked at the large Tyrant, which was now chasing after the Wolfpack soldiers, then looked at his grenades again then at the Tyrant again. He was getting an idea.

Cortana was catching on to what her Spartan friend had in mind and, knowing how he had always completed extremely dangerous objectives in a risky fashion, she had a bad feeling that he was going to pull off yet another one of his frantic stunts.

"John . . . what are you going to do?" she asked worriedly.

"Something crazy." he replied. His answer was a reference to Cortana jokingly telling him before that she "liked crazy" from the time he helped defend the UNSC space station Cairo from a Covenant attack where he found and returned a Covenant-constructed, antimatter bomb back to its own creators with no support from anyone. What John did that day was considered suicidal and, to some, incredibly stupid. But at least it worked.

"Figures." Cortana said blankly.

When his shields had been fully recovered, John sprinted back to the action and prepared to carry out his battle plan. He gripped his machete as tight as he could as he leaped into the air and deeply lodged the blade into Mr. X's enlarged, regenerated right arm and shoulder, attaching himself to the enemy creature. He eyed another one of its weak spots near its neck and chest and confirmed those areas to be his choice of destroying the beast.

With no more zombies left to oppose them, Leon, Wolfpack and Thel all stared at the sight of the Spartan attacking the giant Tyrant without any fear whatsoever.

Some of the Wolfpack troops thought what the man in green armor was doing was suicide and even they, a well-trained group of killer mercenaries, would not dare try what John was about to do.

Mr. X swayed and swiped at the Spartan to shake him off, but the latter refused to yield.

John grabbed for one of his trusty frag grenades, initiated its timer, arched his hand back and crammed the small explosive right inside the Tyrant's chest cavity and glow spot. His hand and forearm were soaked in the Tyrant's blood when he yanked them back out. For once, Cortana didn't respond to that with an "eww" reaction like she did a couple of times before.

Pulling his machete out, John leaped off, landed back on the ground and slowly walked backwards. He didn't bother ducking for any cover.

The Tyrant desperately tried to extract the active grenade from its chest, but could not succeed.

Predicting what was coming next, everybody else started backing away in a hurry to seek cover. Thel stood his ground and refused to budge as did John.

Mr. X roared in agony and the grenade exploded, erupting blood, flesh and some bone parts like a volcano.

Although what became of the vicious B.O.W. was indeed impressive, it still wasn't enough to kill it because it had actually survived the blast, however, John's action did weaken the monster severely. Not even its healing ability could patch the beast up faster.

"Here! Take this!" said a random, female voice.

Everyone, including Leon, looked around in a huff to find who said that and the officer spotted a shadowy figure standing on top of the balcony right above him. The voice sounded vaguely familiar to him. Despite being hidden in darkness, the mystery individual looked and sounded like . . .

"Ada? Is that you?" Leon called out to the unknown figure. He thought she was dead after fighting the Tyrant back at the lab's furnace area.

The person didn't respond to Leon's question and simply dropped something large and powerful looking next to where Leon stood with a loud _clunk_ sound.

That item happened to be a Rocket-Propelled Grenade launcher, or better known as a rocket launcher. This new weapon may just be the one thing that can surely annihilate Mr. X for good.

After soaking in the sight of the newly, delivered weapon, Leon turned his attention back to the balcony and found no trace of the unidentified female survivor. She was gone as if by magic.

Leon had a major feeling that the helper was Ada Wong herself because the voice sure did match hers.

John and Cortana already knew it was Ada Wong as Cortana had earlier explained what she would be doing in 2004, 2012 and 2013. Other than that, John was able to see her clearly with his night vision mode.

Due to the rocket launcher's weight, Leon was definitely unable to use it, so he asked either John or Thel to take it and John complied and went over to scoop it up. He would be able to figure out how to use the weapon since it was, in a way, one of the ancestors of the rocket launchers he used in the wars and conflicts before in his lifetime as a genetically-enhanced soldier.

After making sure it was loaded and ready to fire, John took aim at the mortally injured T-103 who was barely in the process of healing itself.

"Do it, Chief!" Cortana said encouragingly and John pressed the launcher's red button trigger and the projectile inside the launcher flew out and soared through the air like a torpedo.

Everybody except John and the Tyrant all quickly evaded out of the rocket's path as it whizzed past them and made impact with the B.O.W. and exploded in a great flash of fire, shrapnel and more blood.

Mr. X roared and moaned weakly as it grabbed at where it was hit. Now the creature had one side of its body completely missing and it was so physically weakened that its enhanced strength, endurance and not even its regeneration could save it now.

The Tyrant monster tried to move, but within seconds, it just gave up and collapsed on the ground. The vicious monster that had spent the whole, entire night stalking Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield and Sherry Birkin under orders to kill them and retrieve Sherry's G-virus sample hidden away in her now-lost locket, was finally vanquished at long last.

"Holy mother of God . . .!" Leon muttered. For a moment, nobody moved or said anything. The grisly scene made everyone except Thel and John freeze in shock.

Claire quietly opened the train door again after realizing the sounds of battle have ceased and saw the Tyrant as a blown-up corpse now. Although she didn't exactly see it, she knew that John or Thel were responsible for killing the thing. Still, she couldn't believe that it was finally dead and in a gory way. She thought it would never leave them alone and would chase them to the ends of the Earth.

She stayed on the train, refusing to leave Sherry alone in fear of Wolfpack coming to claim her. They were still hiding behind some crates and barrels, so she couldn't have seen them.

With the Tyrant battle having been concluded, the U.S.S. team left their spots and approached the survivors, eyeing them silently. Leon and Claire assumed that the postponed battle over Sherry was about to pick up where it left off prior to the Tyrant showing up and causing chaos. John and Thel readied themselves to step in and defend the three.

But to their surprise, Wolfpack did not appear to show any signs of hostility. They didn't even raise their guns in a threatening manner to begin with.

_What exactly are these ruthless assholes up to? Why won't they attack, not that I want them to?_ Claire thought to herself.

Beltway raised his hand to his helmet radio speaker. "Wolfpack to U.S.S. Command. We have the targets in our sights." he said.

"Good work. Eliminate them and bring us the girl." said their commanding officer. The other survivors except Sherry heard every word said between them and their boss.

Their would-be enemies jumped to the conclusion that another fight was going to happen, but unbeknownst to them, Wolfpack had plans of their very own.

Four Eyes spoke in Beltway's place. "We could do that, but first we need to renegotiate our deal."

"What are you talking about?" Command questioned with a slight hint of irritation in his voice.

"You left us for dead, fighting your fucking B.O.W.s! We want triple the original amount and an evac chopper sent to our location immediately." Vector explained sternly, taking over for Four Eyes. Claire and Leon couldn't believe what was going on. These black ops killers were negotiating with their own boss employing them. They wanted to see how things turned out between the group and their CO first before acting ahead.

"You must be out of your minds! We're not negotiating with any of you! Now, finish your mission!" the voice barked angrily.

"Finish it yourself." Bertha stepped in, fumbling her handgun in her hand as she spoke. "Since you won't agree to our demands, then consider our contract with Umbrella officially terminated."

That broke the final straw with their employer.

"Then you can all die along with Raccoon City!" the voice yelled.

"We'll take our chances." Spectre said boldly.

What was, supposedly as of now, the very final transmission between Wolfpack and Umbrella has come and gone and the six U.S.S. soldiers were now on their own again and this time, it was permanent. No additional chance for them unlike before.

Because of their recent, sudden resignation/firing from the Umbrella company, this also meant that their objectives of capturing Sherry Birkin and killing Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, along with Thel 'Vadam and John-117 were now null and void and they saw no further reason to pursue those motives.

The now-disavowed Umbrella Security Service agents removed their radios, let them drop on the ground and stomped on the devices like insects until they were completely shattered then walked toward the survivors.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but why didn't you kill us?" Leon asked them even though he had heard their discussion on their radios the whole time.

"It seems you're not the leverage we thought you were. Umbrella's turned on us already. It's time we stabbed them in the back." Vector answered.

Claire looked at the unconscious child out of worry since she was originally the group's sole target for Umbrella as they had admitted when they arrived, but now that the six individuals have just severed their allegiance with their source of employment, she desired to know for sure whether or not they were still going to try to kill them and kidnap Sherry.

"What about Sherry?" she asked them.

"Keep her. We've got other plans." Lupo told her and Claire felt relieved to hear that. "Once we get out of this city, we're going to gut Umbrella from the inside-out."

**"TWO MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION! REPEAT: TWO MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION!"** said the announcer. At that moment, the lab rumbled like if an earthquake had struck. It was small at first, then it grew bigger.

"An ignition key should be inside your train's control room. You can start it up with that." Four Eyes said to them, pointing to the train and the unit made their way to one of the other trains, most noticeably, the one John slammed against during the battle. While they were approaching the second train, they ripped the U.S.S. patches from their uniforms and discarded them like paper, another sign of their defection.

"By the way," Vector began to say as he was about to board the train. "a few hours ago back on the city streets, we've had a quick run-in with a few others that resembled your two bodyguards." He said to Leon and Claire. "Well, they mostly looked like the one with the glowing sword weapons and one of them nearly killed me." He gestured at Thel 'Vadam as he said the word "you".

Leon and Claire were confused by Vector's statement while his words jolted some surprise and shock for the alien, Spartan and A.I. They thought they were the only ones from the future in this time period. Was it a mere possibility that more Sangheilis were roaming Raccoon City? Did they also come here by the same means they did (even though their way was purely accidental) and, most importantly, if other Elites were here, why were they even here to begin in the first place? The only way to know for sure was to seek them out and question them.

They all watched as the Wolfpack people boarded their own train, started it up and guided the vehicle in the direction of a tunnel separate from the one meant for the first train and were gone, never to be seen or heard from again.

"I don't mean to sound pushy people, but we'd better move it before we're all toast!" Cortana said alarmingly.

Remembering the current problem, the group boarded their own evac train. John scooped up his assault rifle first.

Once on board, Claire placed Sherry back down on the same soft seat she was on the whole time during the duration of the Tyrant fight and kept a close vigilance on her as Leon and the other two searched for the key in the control room as per Wolfpack's suggestion.

Leon found it on the floor, picked it up and madly inserted it into the ignition lock and turned it. That didn't start the train's main engines at first. It probably needed to warm up first because they guessed that the train hasn't been operational in days or longer. But now was not the time for that, they needed to leave right now!

For Leon, driving this train was going to be very different from driving the jeep vehicle he used to get to Raccoon City or the police cruiser he and Claire commandeered to escape a mob of hungry zombies chasing after them.

**"ONE MINUTE UNTIL DETONATION! REPEAT: ONE MINUTE UNTIL DETONATION!"**

_Okay, we get it already!_ Leon's mind screamed what he almost blurted out for real, but held his tongue. All that noise outside the train was going to give him a splitting headache that he felt was going to need some aspirin for later.

A green light flickered throughout the train, meaning that it was ready to proceed immediately.

John thought Leon was stuck with something and was about to offer him some assistance, but he then knew that the cop had everything under control.

"Punch it." the Spartan said calmly.

Leon turned his head and nodded and he placed his hand over a switch he hoped was the train's version of a car's gas pedal and yanked it downward.

The train groaned to life and its wheels creaked that terrible, ear-splitting all-too familiar sound that gives goosebumps to all who hear it and like that, the entire train began to move. Slow at first, then moments later, its speed increased.

Soon, the train yard's internal structure started to come apart. The pillar structures crumbled and broke apart. Debris from the ceiling rained down and shattered on the ground. From behind the train, a fiery explosion was seen taking place and was followed by a few more like it.

One of the explosions caused another tremor, larger this time, that knocked Sherry off her seat and before she can hit the floor, Claire swooped in and caught her in the nick of time and held onto her tightly.

The explosions and tremors grew worse with each passing second.

**"DETONATION WILL COMMENCE IN T-MINUS 12 SECONDS: 11 . . . 10 . . . 9 . . . 8 . . . 7 . . . 6 . . . 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . ."**

"Hit the deck!" Claire yelled and kept her strong grip on Sherry (not enough to actually constrict her like a snake, though) while still on the floor and braced herself for the upcoming detonation that was sure to rock the train and the entire facility.

As a precaution, Thel clutched the side of a railing pole nearby.

From inside the control room, Leon and John heard the countdown and Claire's voice and they too grasped at whatever was there that was strong enough to withstand the detonation and keep their balance.

When the countdown ended, the underground laboratory, now very distant to the survivors, blew up in bright flames and sparks as if a nuke had gone off inside. Every B.O.W. experiment in the lab, alive or dead, was now incinerated by the destruction.

Claire, recovering after the blast had died down, guessed that Annette Birkin's corpse was also burnt to oblivion. Her former workplace was now her tomb forever.

With the train now safely away from the detonation, Leon and John left the control room to check on the others. All three were alright and were unharmed by the violent shaking, but Claire was inspecting Sherry to see if she was still alive.

"Sherry? Sherry, can you hear me? Wake up." she said, trying her best to stay calm. Now all eyes were locked on the child who didn't respond to Claire's voice and Claire's concern for her grew.

She tried to gently shake her awake, but that did no good. Claire was feeling very terrified now. She wondered if Sherry's fall from earlier did anything to her or if the serum didn't work to save her or if they were too late to administer it.

Leon tried to intervene, but Claire ignored him, her focus aimed on Sherry 100 percent.

When Sherry still didn't wake up, Claire was about to assume the worst when Sherry suddenly groaned and opened her eyes, seeing everyone looking right at her.

"Claire?" Sherry said, wondering if it really was her or just a hallucination.

"Sherry!" Claire said joyfully. Sherry knew she was real all right.

"It worked!" Leon said.

After a while, everyone settled down to relish the moment of being alive. Claire, Leon and Sherry couldn't believe that they had all survived an extremely, grim night of the undead. They could have been killed and consumed by any creature they've faced, but they were lucky.

"It's finally over." Leon said as he started to walk away.

"Not yet. I still have to find my brother." Claire told him. She reminded him of her main purpose of even coming to Raccoon City in the first place and Leon had completely forgotten about that until now.

"You're right. This is just the beginning." he said and resumed his venture back to the control room to be alone for a moment. He was right in a way.

Claire decided to let Leon be with himself. She figured that he was still sore on losing Ada Wong and that he missed her.

Thel and John sat down on seating arrangements opposite of the two females. Once again, they have cheated death and proved why they were considered the best soldiers in their respective fields.

John and Cortana have not forgotten that the laboratory's destruction was not the end of the line yet as Leon said just now. Umbrella would still be around to unleash more chaos and terror to the public in the coming years and they still had to reveal to their escortees of the horrors of the near-future. They both wondered how the three people would handle the news since they actually lacked any particular evidence to back their claims. John had decided to break the news to them once the train had come to a complete stop outside of the city limits. Claire, Leon and Sherry had just barely escaped with their lives intact and he didn't wish to spoil their joyous moment for now.

Thel 'Vadam, on the other hand, was completely unaware of the future outbreak crises due to him not being present to hear Cortana's story as he was accommodating Claire on her search for Sherry's vaccine back in the lab.

Claire turned to Sherry and dusted her off because she looked like she had crawled out from under a giant, dirty carpet. Her eyes focused on the motorcycle vest she gave her when she was sick.

"My God has protected you." she told her with a smile on her face, referring to the fancy logo on the vest's back that consisted of an angelic woman holding a bomb in her hands and levitating under three words that said "Made In Heaven."

Sherry slightly turned her head and saw the vest's design and understood what Claire was talking about. She admired its appearance.

"It will always be with you." Claire added.

With their tragic night of terror and mayhem all behind them now (or so they believed for now), the two girls embraced in a warming hug. Sherry was happy, but Claire, while happy on the outside, had one more piece of concern within herself. Sherry was still not yet aware that her mother was deceased and her own father, also dead, was the monster who hunted her and implanted that godawful embryo specimen in her before. Claire could not hide this info from her forever and knew she was going to have to tell her sometime and, as she had guessed previously, Sherry was not going to take the news very well. Who wouldn't?

Inside the control room, Leon glared out of the glass window in front of him with a look of sadness on his face. Images of Ada flashed in his mind like photographs. Even though Leon had known her for only one night, to him, it felt like he knew her for months or years.

Back there just before the Tyrant was finally killed, he thought he saw her. Or he was just seeing things. He assumed that if she was truly alive that time, he hoped that she might have escaped the lab's destruction or if she was merely just an hallucination brought up by stress from the fight or by some other means and she really was dead, then the blast may have completely incinerated her corpse like Claire assumed with Annette and every other mistake of nature Umbrella had cooked up.

"Good-bye Ada." he whispered softly. He didn't care if she worked for Umbrella or some other secretive organization, she could have shot him just moments before Annette shot her, but, after she refused to harm him, Leon knew there was a spark of good in her.

Back outside of the room, while everyone else was taking a break, Cortana noticed that something was amiss. She remembered that in the original timeline of the city's events, William Birkin, while in a further and final mutated "G" form that symbolized his entire humanity being diminished for good, was supposed to follow them and attack the train right now in a last-ditch attempt on getting Sherry and Leon and Claire were to kill him in the process, destroying the train during the situation. Although it was a good thing this event wasn't happening right now, she was still curious as to why it was that way.

She then remembered that Thel 'Vadam had decapitated Birkin with his energy swords the last time they met him, possibly killing him off permanently and she realized there that because of how the fight ended, they, mostly he, must have erased the final battle with William from the timestream.

The G-virus was designed to grant biological immunity to its host, allowing the subject to survive virtually anything that harmed it. Perhaps the virus's so-called immortality did not protect hosts from everything after all since beheading was the one, probable thing that could slay a G monster. The only two people to become victimized by that virus were William Birkin and a man named Curtis Miller who would not contract the deadly strain until the Harvardvale airport incident of 2005. William's attack on the train was one piece of original history they have deleted and their interference had saved Leon and Claire the trouble of having to deal with him any further. They had killed Sherry Birkin's father early than before. Now both of her parents were officially dead and gone. She truly was the last of her family.

Cortana shared William's absence to John through muted communication and the latter wordlessly believed her.

Soon, the train had taken the survivors out of the tunnel and away from the city. Leon fiddled with some of the switches to stop the train and it slowed down and stopped and they all stepped off the train. The sun was beginning to break the night and start the day and they had officially escaped the infested city at last.

"Feels good to finally be away from that town!" Leon said. Claire and Sherry agreed with him. It was only one night, but they felt as if they've been stranded in Raccoon City for days. Sherry really was trapped in the town for days.

Claire stretched her lower back and turned to Sherry.

"Sherry, you look terrible." Claire joked.

Sherry sensed what she meant and replied with a smile, "No worse than you, Claire."

"Come on. Time to leave." Leon said to them.

Claire and Sherry glanced at him with confused expressions.

"Now? What's wrong? Is something following us?" Claire asked concernedly.

"We have to go. We don't have any time to waste." Leon said while walking toward the sunrise.

"Go where?" Claire asked him.

Leon turned his head to Claire. and said, "It's up to us to take down Umbrella."

"Oh." Claire stated.

While following him, Claire looked at Sherry again and, as much as it pained her to do this, now was the time to let Sherry know of her parents' fates. Telling her was going to be as hard as Sherry hearing it.

"Sherry." she said calmly and the girl looked at her.

"What is it, Claire?" she asked.

Claire knelt down to her eye level, her face turning into sadness.

"It's . . . about your mother and father." she said regretfully. Leon stopped walking upon hearing Claire speak and turned to see what was going on.

"My mom and dad? What about them? Are they alright? Do you know where they are?" Sherry questioned eagerly under the false belief that her parents had made it out too and were probably looking for her.

Claire inhaled deeply to summon the courage to answer Sherry's questions and she started to slowly tell her about her parents.

As her story went on, it began to deeply affect Sherry as Claire had predicted when her smile of hope changed into a frown of depression and when Claire finished her story, Sherry's eyes filled with tears and she broke down.

Claire really felt guilty just from telling her the truth.

"The vaccine we saved you with, it was from your mother. The last thing she said was that even though she and your dad weren't always there for you, they have always loved you very much." Claire said as she hugged the mourning girl.

"No! That's a lie! Mommy never . . ." she tried to say, but she was filled with so much grief, she could not even finish her sentence.

Her sobbing lasted until Claire noted that they needed to leave before anything else found them. Sherry, although still devastated from learning of the loss of her parents, agreed and she wiped her teary eyes. With her parents dead, she felt Claire was all she had left to look up to in the world now as she had no one and nowhere else to go to.

Now that they were out of danger, John knew it was now time for the moment he and Cortana were biding their time for since the lab: the revelation of the future.

"Wait. Before you leave, there is something very important you three must know." he said.

The three survivors looked at him curiously.

"What you are about to hear will sound greatly confusing, disturbing, and perhaps impossible, but at the same time, we feel that it will be very useful to you in your newfound goal of ending Umbrella." John said.

Claire, Leon and Sherry feared that what the Spartan had to say to them was the opposite of good news and they were going to be right about that because it wasn't good news at all. Nevertheless, Leon urged him to tell them anyway and he nodded in approval. But before John could began, just to be safe, he scanned their surroundings to make sure no one else but them were around and within earshot.

When the coast was clear, he was about to start his long speech when Cortana stopped him and suggested that she do the explaining in his place and so John allowed it, telling them that he was putting Cortana on speaker. Cortana disabled the helmet's muting function so she could be heard freely and began her story.

The A.I. tried to be as specific as possible as she revealed to Claire, Leon and Sherry everything she told John of every bio-terror incident that was to take place eventually. She started from the Sheena Island incident of November of this year all the way to the worldwide C-virus epidemic of the early 21st century, the viruses (and parasites) responsible for creating those skirmishes and the three's roles with some of the events along with some of the people who they'd meet during their crusade against Umbrella.

Sherry was surprised to hear Cortana's voice considering that, until now, she had never heard her speak before all night without her muting function. Plus, she did not meet her physical form as she was not with them yet when John introduced the artificial being to Claire and Leon inside the infested police station.

Because this was his first time learning about the soon-to-come outbreaks, Thel 'Vadam was also taken aback by Cortana's speech. This was similar to how he felt when he learned about Raccoon City's massive crisis when he crash landed in town. He was getting another lesson in human history and this time, it was future-history.

The survivors' faces changed different expressions: confusions, sorrow, shock and disbelief.

After Cortana was done with her story, Claire asked how they can know of such information like that and why they were being told about it?

"Because as John told you before, we both believe that sharing this source of information with you will be useful in preventing these bio-terror incidents from ever taking place in a few years from now. To us, they have already made their terrible marks in history where we come from."

The confusion inside Claire and Leon increased, prompting the A.I., Elite and Spartan to prepare for their second confession about who they really were.

"What do you mean? Are you guys from another state or country? Did Umbrella victimize wherever you're from the way they did with Raccoon City?" Leon asked, believing Cortana meant that they were from either some other part of the United States or from foreign territory.

"Well, in a way and no." Cortana said, answering Leon's second and third questions in order and building up the courage to say the next words. "Not only are the three of us not from this nation, we are not from this entire _planet_ at all."

Now here was where things got interesting.

"You see . . . the three of us are from the future, the 26th century to be exact. We came here by accidental means while we were drifting through the deep recesses of space in a warship of ours that unintentionally brought us here. At first, we believed that we crash landed on the Earth we're used to in our time, but once we discovered the situation back in the town, we were plenty surprised ourselves that we had time-traveled into the distant past and were exploring one of history's most infamous and horrible acts of evil ever committed upon mankind in person. Sometime during our journey with you three, we were aware the whole time that this would be very difficult for any of you to believe when preparing to tell you as soon as we all got out of the city, but rest assured, I am telling you the honest truth. Everything you've seen on us, our weapons, gadgets, armor, even myself, are prime evidence of what you are hearing because they and myself are not native to this time period anymore than John and Thel 'Vadam are."

At first, Leon, Claire and Sherry found Cortana's words to be quite unbelievable and skeptical to digest. Normally in human society when someone says things like that, the person is either insane, a liar who desires attention from the public or is just in denial of reality, also known by several titles like "nutjob", "nerd", "geek", "fool" and other names that describe said person of his or her insane beliefs. But on the other hand, Thel and John had helped them survive the town's infested inhabitants and bravely fought and killed every freak of nature they had encountered. How could they suddenly tell "lies" to them after all the good they've done?

Besides, what Cortana said of their powerful technology being non-existent in modern times did kinda make sense. Where else could they have acquired it? Nobody in the world, not even the powerful United States government, has what they had. At least for now.

Dead people preying on human victims as a source of food was thought by all to be merely fictional and ridiculous until the vivid events they faced mere hours ago changed their minds on the subject and their lives forever. Zombies were real, they sure as hell knew that now. What else was out there? Vampires? Werewolves? Dragons and magic wizards?

In order to be truly sure that their saviors were being completely honest about what they were saying as well as the outbreaks that haven't even happened yet, Leon asked the two to remove their helmets and reveal their faces underneath. The armor, weapons and gadgets were one thing, but identifying themselves right before the eyes of three survivors they just helped out would really show if they were being serious.

"You might as well, John. If it's the only way to convince them that we're the real deal, then I say go for it. After all we've done for them, it's only fair and I believe they'll accept you guys no matter what." said Cortana.

John and Thel exchanged glances and gave one another silent nods of approval. However, despite what she had just said, Cortana felt worried of how the cop, college woman and orphaned child would react from seeing what they looked like. John might pass due to him being human like them, but as for Thel 'Vadam, seeing a real-life extraterrestrial being standing right in front of them would really stay glued in their minds until their time came no doubt.

"Very well. You have earned the right to see our true faces. React however you feel upon first sight of us both, but in return, we would be grateful that you vow to never tell anybody else about us for the rest of your lives. We feel that others would not take very kindly to our presences, especially his." John told them, nudging his head to Thel. He was not saying it to threaten them into secrecy as it sounded, he just needed to be sure they fully trusted him before giving in to their request.

Puzzled from why he said that, nevertheless, the three survivors agreed to keep silent of this moment.

John was the first to take his helmet off. He raised his hands to his helmet and slowly removed it. Air hissed from the helmet's sides as it separated from his MJOLNIR suit.

His face and skin texture was shown to be ragged and unnaturally pale as a consequence of spending most of his time in his armor as it had blocked off much sunlight from his skin, preventing him from acquiring the daily natural vitamin d his body needed. It also may be because he had spent four decades of his lifespan frozen inside one of the FORWARD UNTO DAWN's cryonic chambers.

John had blue eyes, reddish hair that was very short to his scalp like a skinhead, and appeared to be somewhere in his late 40's due to his somewhat aged appearance. Were it not for the cryostasis, he would be an elderly man now, probably in his late 80's. His eyes squinted to adjust to the rising sun from the distance.

Leon, Sherry and Claire were quite fathomed by the Spartan's physical image. He looked as if he had been locked away in a windowless room for ages.

Thel 'Vadam was next to show his face. Knowing how the humans' reactions would stem from seeing his otherworldly features, he still went through with it anyway and reached to remove his own helmet. He was fully prepared to brave out whatever negative words or thoughts they would conjure up about him.

While their reactions to John might have been normal, the instant Claire, Leon and Sherry laid their eyes on Thel 'Vadam's inhuman face, they instinctively backed away with their eyes and mouths agape in fear. Their minds skyrocketed to the highest point of surprise and shock and disbelief.

"Whoa, what the fuck!? How can-!? It can't be!" were Claire's and Leon's mixed verbal responses while Sherry's own response was just a strong yelp and she dug her face in her hands and Claire held her tightly.

John looked at Thel, sensing how he felt despite him being human unlike the alien being. Thel didn't move an inch during their frightened responses. He just let them be.

"Yes, this is my true form. What you are seeing is no trickery of any sort. But despite my unsightly appearance, I assure you that I am not your enemy nor am I one of those sadistic creatures we have slain together." Thel said, fearless of their judgment of him. His mandibles moved sideways when he spoke his words.

None of the survivors could think of what to say or think of one of the beings that risked life and death to help them escape the Raccoon City carnage. This was all so sudden for them, just like the zombies. But then again, they were given a fair warning prior to their unmasking.

John, Thel and Cortana sensed that the survivors were just taking their time to let the big reveal soak in. Their behavior was a natural response from seeing something so unsuspecting and/or unnatural. They felt the same with the B.O.W.s, so this too counted.

It was no wonder Sherry mistook the Elite soldier for a B.O.W. when she first saw him even though he was fully concealed in his armor and was greatly terrified of him when he found her after Claire sent him to retrieve her. Although not a monster, he still was not human either.

Claire was, at first, unable to comprehend the fact that this whole time she and Sherry were paired with someone who is not of this world (technically John wasn't from Earth either despite his physical humanity) or of the human race for that matter. All throughout the night, she thought he was a bulky human man that was just deep voiced. Boy, was she wrong.

After a while of thinking and silence, Leon spoke up.

"So . . . you guys are . . . real space aliens?!" he asked in a bewildered way.

John replied, "Yes and no. While I am 100 percent human, I was also not born on this planet either like you three. I come from a planet called 'Eridanus 2'. In our time, Earth is not the only world that people live on. Humanity's scientific and technological advancement in later years will allow them to embark further into the depths of the cosmos and colonize other planets. There are other worlds besides this one that can sustain and support human life despite what modern scientists and researchers say and believe about there being no planet like this one. All of that will one day become reality and I am living proof."

After John ceased his speech, Thel 'Vadam proceeded with his.

"As for me, I come from a race of beings called 'Sangheilis' and the world my kind and myself hail from is called 'Sangheilios', and despite my cooperation alongside you three in the previous night, humans and Sangheilis were not always on friendly terms where we come from. In our years, our races were once enemies and we both fought a long, grueling interstellar war against one another for reasons involving two beliefs, one religious and the other of your entire species being inferior to ours. But we eventually settled on a cease-fire truce and joined forces to put an end to the war after my people and I discovered that our aforementioned beliefs of you and our religion were conceived out of deception by a third party we once viewed as our leading voices whom we formally called the Prophets. I have slain one of them during the final days of the war as an act of revenge for deceiving and turning on my kind. Since then, even though we were not there to witness the outcome of the war, which I assume we have won, I am certain that our races have learned to co-exist over the years since our absence." Thel said.

Because they were still frozen and left undiscovered in the later half of the 26th century before bring brought to and awakened in the 20th century, John, Cortana (although she was never frozen to begin with) and Thel were completely unaware of the deadly rivalry between humankind and the dangerous new Storm Covenant in the farther half of the future, so just about half of Thel's story was true and the other was not.

To make more sense of their background and help the survivors understand them better, the three were educated further on about what life in the 26th century was like. But rather than telling them _everything_ since that would have consumed so much time to do, they were simply told about certain important things such as the Spartan soldier programs which John was a part of, the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper unit and their rivalry with Spartans, the Insurrection battles which Spartans were sort of trained to fight against (which John also participated in) and, of course, the Human-Covenant War. Here, they were informed of the Prophets Thel had mentioned near his speech and the lies the Prophets preached to jumpstart the war and the Covenant and who they were and Thel's involvement in, and eventual breakaway of, that faction, the Jiralhanae race and their blood feud with them after the breakaway, the Halo rings and how Thel and his people believed them to be sacred, religious icons that were said to reward all deeply devoted followers greatly for their loyal services until the Elites learned the hard way of the rings' true purpose of being weapons of mass destruction that were designed to wipe out all sentient life throughout the entire universe that would be a lot more massive and apocalyptic than humanity's fears of a nuclear war or a space rock crashing into the Earth. The final thing that was mentioned was the slipspace jumping technology that was available in the future, which was how the female A.I., the Spartan and Elite came to Raccoon City.

Claire, Leon and Sherry appeared as if they were going to faint because the things they have now heard and seen, once again, sounded completely like a work of fiction. Alien militaries, interstellar space travel, life on other planets and giant rings that were able to wipe out all sentient life in the entire galaxy? But it was true, all of it, except the part of all Elites and humans working together, that was Thel's assumption.

Now Leon and Claire knew why Thel addressed John as "Spartan" back when Leon was found bleeding in the sewer tunnels. The term was not a surname or a nickname, it was what he was.

"So, all this time, the theory of humans not being the only living intellectuals in existence . . . is true?!" Claire asked. She remembered watching several of those television documentaries about extraterrestrials having had contact with humankind for centuries and that people may or may not be the only ones alive.

"Yes. There are other civilizations out there besides Thel 'Vadam and his kind that speak, think and work like we do. They have always been around as long as humans." John answered.

Claire rubbed the left side of her head in disbelief. She had a mental prediction of what Chris's reaction would be like if she told him how her time in Raccoon City was like and who she was speaking with. That is, if she ever found him first. He would flip out completely. But then again, she did promise John and Thel to never reveal this moment to anybody and she couldn't break it. She knew how people would react to unbelievable events like this. The government would respond with attempts at capturing them for experimentation and testing as depicted in some films involving human contact with extraterrestrials.

"You okay, Claire?" Sherry asked after seeing her reaction and Claire said she was and was confused is all.

Leon, although still gathering himself, asked them for the identities of the people that were supposed to be responsible for the future catastrophes and Cortana told him and Claire who those people were.

When a certain person named Albert Wesker was mentioned among Cortana's verbal list of bio-terrorist criminals, that name rung a bell in Claire's head. After his escape from the Arklay mansion, Chris once told her about Wesker being his commanding officer during that night and how Wesker eventually turned traitor and revealed that he was working for Umbrella the whole time and that the S.T.A.R.S. team's mission that night was actually a trap to collect data of the monsters' combat abilities against the S.T.A.R.S. members as a means of producing and improving more monsters. She also remembered Chris saying that Wesker was literally killed at the hands of a Tyrant creature he tried to use against Chris and his surviving teammates and right now she was wondering how Wesker could help cause some of the outbreaks in later years if he was supposedly dead.

Claire asked them about the latter part of her thoughts and Cortana explained that Albert Wesker had falsified his death by injecting himself with a dose of a prototype virus to resurrect himself just prior to being murdered by the Tyrant monster in the mansion's laboratory that night. He intentionally allowed the monster to kill him in front of his former comrades to make it more believable and it worked perfectly according to his plan and he made his escape from the mansion as its self-destruct phase was initiated.

Cortana brought up the fact that the prototype virus did more than bring the S.T.A.R.S. traitor back from the dead, it also altered his DNA and imbued him with superhuman abilities that deprived him of his humanity, both mental and physical, and allowed him to be superior in combat against anybody who dared to oppose him.

Since John and Cortana claimed to know what things would unfold later in life, they were asked of what future Raccoon City would face due to its current, unpleasant state and John confessed, with regret in his voice, that the town was scheduled to be completely annihilated by means of a non-nuclear, yet powerful lethal missile strike in a couple of days from now by order of the United States president and Derek Simmons, one of the two perpetrators of the C-virus events in the 21st century, in hopes of erasing all traces of the city-wide T-virus and its horrifying creations from existence and preventing any further incidents like Raccoon from happening even though they would happen again anyway as mentioned, making the order seem like a waste. This event is to be called "Sterilization Operation" or "XX", codenames that the American government gave to the plan.

"Wait. Raccoon City is going to be bombed by our own government?" Leon questioned with anxiety.

"I'm afraid so." John said. He also said that the American town of Tall Oaks would share Raccoon City's eventual fate during the C-virus disasters.

"Your society faced and succumbed to these dark challenges previously in the original timeline and a lot of casualties have occurred all because of the Umbrella Corporation and the world was nearly driven into madness and possibly close to extinction were it to continue. Some people even believed that there was no hope left on account of the vicious outbreaks and the rising death toll it was causing. But now it's possible that those things may never take place again if our plan of eradicating Umbrella early is a success and the best way to accomplish that is by taking down the main individuals that are to cause these outbreaks and if they are vanquished early, so will Umbrella. The only thing that not even we can stop, sadly to say, is Raccoon City's imminent doom." His last sentence referring to the XX missile weapon.

"Okay. So, who's the closest person we need to find and defeat first that will lead us one step closer to eliminating Umbrella early?" Leon asked.

The closest people John and Cortana could think of so far were Albert Wesker, who, as mentioned, was alive right now plotting his next sinister move, and the Ashford siblings Alexia and Alfred. They told what they knew about them, where and when they were meant to appear and what those three would do three months from now which made Cortana bring up the history of the T-Veronica virus such as how it was developed, who conceived it and how it was going to be partly responsible for the infestations of Rockford Island and the Umbrella base in Antarctica and she added how Claire Redfield, her brother and Rockford inmate Steve Burnside would all be heavily involved with the T-Veronica outbreak and how those events originally played out in the timestream. It was not a pretty thing to hear.

Claire was shocked by the mere thought that she would be sent to an Alcatraz-inspired prison facility if she resumed her search for Chris and that someone she hadn't even met before that was close to her own age was going to die helping her survive the T-Veronica incident after being sent to rot in prison for being related to an Umbrella employee who was convicted for selling the company's secrets at some auction. That was just sick.

Claire questioned how she would be involved with those disasters and Cortana told her of her capture taking place in an Umbrella facility in Paris, France where she would search for her brother who was supposed to be looking for anything against Umbrella in Europe and of Rodrigo Juan Raval, the man responsible for Claire's detainment in the timestream and the Redfield woman was strongly advised not to travel there for her own safety. It would be like walking into a trap. Claire was also informed that Chris was still alive and safe, but not in Paris. Claire agreed, but she would still keep looking for Chris. At least she knew her brother wasn't dead and wasn't in France.

With the sun much higher now due to the amount of time it took to explain their knowledge of the not-so-distant future and the very-distant future, John looked back at the mountain pass where they just came from and he placed his helmet back on his head and Thel did the same thing and the two began to march back to the mountain. There was something else that was needed to be taken care of back in the city and they had to do it before the bombing deadline.

"Wait, why are you going that way? We just got out." Leon asked, curious as to why they were heading back to the nightmarish danger they had just survived.

They stopped and turned to him and Thel gave the explanation.

"Those human soldiers back there said before departing that there were more like us in your former civilization and that most of them resembled my image. If what they spoke of is true, then we must return and see for ourselves. The ship that brought us to your planet and time was already destroyed from our war and is therefore unable to operate as it once did and because of that, we assumed that we were to remain stranded in this time period for the remainder of our days at first. But if members of my kind are here as well, then we believe they must have a way of returning us to our rightful era."

"But your friend said that Raccoon City's going to be bombed to smithereens in a few days. Going back there with all those vicious monsters roaming everywhere is suicide. Something could go wrong and both of you might not make it out a second time if you go back and, please don't take this the wrong way, but we're not so sure that even your armor suits and savvy tech can fully protect you from that missile you told us about." Claire stated.

"We are fully aware of the serious risk of returning, but it's one we must partake in. All of this may not be our battle, but the moment we entered Raccoon City and got involved with all its horrors like you did, it became ours." John said.

Before departing, Cortana realized there was something else she needed to say to the survivors.

"There is one final detail I almost forgot to mention and it involves both you, Leon and Sherry." she said. When Cortana told about the C-virus outbreaks during her story, she kinda left out the part on how the C-virus was invented.

Sherry was afraid of what she was going to hear next and so was Leon.

"What about them?" Claire questioned and the A.I. explained.

"When you depart from this place, avoid contact with any and all government officials you see during your travels. They will be around here soon to search for and extract any survivors from the city and if they find you, they will transport you to a secret facility of theirs where they will keep Sherry as their captive test subject to study and experiment on under the watchful eye of Derek Simmons as well as a few spies employed by Albert Wesker to keep surveillance on her as he will want a sample of the G-virus. It is there that the government will use Sherry's safety as a means of blackmailing you, Mr. Kennedy, into working for them. That is part of how both you and her, when she reaches adulthood, become government agents in the timeline and some of their experimentation work on Sherry is what will lead to the creation of the C-virus." Cortana warned.

"Wait. How exactly can Sherry be responsible for creating this C-virus thing anyway?" Claire asked again.

"The C-virus was originally created by fusing the remnants of the G-virus in Sherry's system with an augmented strain of the T-Veronica virus, making it more powerful and deadly than its predecessors. Derek Simmons and Carla Radames are the eventual masterminds of its creation." Cortana said.

"The G-virus is still inside Sherry? But how can that be? We got rid of it with the vaccine." Leon said.

"You're half-right about that. While the G-virus's lethal, mutative effects have been cancelled out, the vaccine only acted as a suppressant for 'G' and simply placed it in a dormant state for the time being. It didn't exactly vanquish the virus completely as you had hoped. This is why the American government and their scientists will want Sherry in their clutches if they know about her. Yes, the terrible virus still dwells within her, but thanks to the vaccine, it won't kill her as it nearly did previously, so there's no need to panic about her well-being. However, her adaptation with the G-virus will also grant her the ability to rapidly regenerate damaged skin tissue from most sustained cuts and flesh wounds in seconds rather than days like in regular, uninfected people. As for the C-virus, as long as you keep Sherry out of the government's hands, that virus should never come to be and without it, so should the C-virus attacks in the early half of the next century. The only person in the whole world that is able to effectively treat and even cure the C-virus, and possibly the other B.O.W. viruses, is Albert Wesker's own son Jake Muller who is alive today even though he is a child as of now. He does not know about his biological link to Wesker or his immunity to Umbrella's viruses until 2013 when he is 20 years old." Cortana said.

Leon and Claire made sure to remember what they had heard to prepare themselves.

That pretty much wrapped up the story. Cortana and John have finally revealed everything the three survivors needed to know to survive the future. As a bonus, they also revealed their true identities to them and hoped that their secret stayed silent forever.

They each stood there, glaring at each other for who knows how long before the time came for them to part ways. The Spartan, the Elite and the A.I. had already finished one part of their self-proclaimed mission and they now had to return to Raccoon City to get started on the second half.

"It has been an honor meeting and fighting alongside you three and we wish you the best of luck in ending Umbrella's bio-terrorism once and for all now that you know their future plans. Get to a location that is both safe and very far away from this area." John stated, his request being a quick reminder of the destructive missile strike in two days and with their goal complete here, the two restarted their trek back to the mountain. John gave them a quick Spartan salute as a sign of respect. As for Thel, well, there was one salute he learned from his time in the Covenant, but he refused to perform it as he was not affiliated with them anymore. Instead, he simply copied John's salute alongside him. Leon and Claire nodded silently, not knowing how to return their gestures properly even though they were witnessing them.

John asked Claire and Leon if he can take one of the bags of weapons and ammo with him before leaving and they allowed him to without question. His reason for taking a bag with him was because, remembering something else from Cortana's tale and aside from Wolfpack's news about there being more like them in town, there were supposed to be a few more survivors that were still holed up somewhere in the city and one of them was not only a former S.T.A.R.S. member who survived the mansion mission 2 months prior, but this person was also one of the main opponents of Umbrella Inc and a destined future co-founder of the B.S.A.A. counter-terrorism unit: Jill Valentine. He figured that she could use the bag's extra firepower if she was found.

Suddenly, Leon thought of something and needed to say it before the two left.

"Wait. If you say all of these attacks are going to happen, can you stay and help us out in fighting them? I mean, after you find what you're looking for back there. Perhaps you two should consider it. Taking on those virus-producing criminals won't be easy by ourselves and we could sure use the extra help from you like we did in town." Leon asked them. He didn't know where that came from. It just popped out of him.

They stopped in their tracks for a moment after the cop said that. It was true that battling Umbrella would prove to be very difficult without John Thel and Cortana's participation. Plus, if they did find more of Thel's kind in the city, then maybe he could persuade them into joining them and the fight against Umbrella could be simpler with them around. It was just a thought, but it sounded useful.

"The cop's got a point, John. Maybe we should consider giving them another hand afterward whether we do or don't find Thel's people in Raccoon City. It would increase the odds of changing future-history tenfold." Cortana suggested.

Despite what they said about them not belonging in the present era, John knew Cortana and Leon were right. Although they belonged in the future, it sounded wrong to just leave Leon, Sherry and Claire to deal with Umbrella on their own. He didn't know about Thel, but John considered thinking it over before reaching a decision.

"We shall see about that." was his only response to Leon's offer. It was not a promise, but it was not a refusal neither.

John and Thel hovered up over the mountain with their hoverpacks, climbed up over the rocks and vanished behind said rocks.

They were gone, heading back into Raccoon City to seek not only Jill Valentine, but also the answers they sought and they only had two days to succeed before the XX missile deadline.

After Thel, John and Cortana's departure, Leon, Sherry and Claire were left pondering this vast, new information about everything they learned and what they went through with much, much thought. Their lives would never be the same ever again after spending a night in zombie hell and, unless drastic action was taken against Umbrella, Raccoon's events would repeat themselves and most of the world would suffer and die.

According to the 26th century soldiers, one of the two main steps to take in stopping Umbrella and saving the world was to hide Sherry from the U.S. government at all costs. Claire made a promise to herself after Annette died that she would care for Sherry for years to come and she didn't intend to break that vow ever. She said the same thing to the Wolfpack team back there before the fight with the Tyrant and she meant it.

The second main step was finding and putting an end to the people that were going to initiate the future bio-terror attacks onto the public.

The first and most powerful of these bio-terrorist dirtbags was Albert Wesker. But from what John and Cortana had just said about the man, since Wesker had now obtained superpowers from his "death", taking him out was not going to be an easy task to accomplish. It would be like fighting someone while blindfolded. Claire wondered how her brother was able to kill him in the year 2009 and how she would be able to do the same. The only incident that would not involve the Umbrella viruses was the Las Plagas outbreak of 2004 that was set to take place in the country of Spain according to Cortana. While the monsters there were not virus-spawned, they were still dangerous and deadly and had to be stopped before 2004 came where they would supposedly launch their own brand of terror.

"Claire?" Sherry asked. "Do you think what that strange man said about me is true? Will I be locked away until I grow up?"

Although spooked by the mere thought herself deep down, Claire answered the girl calmly.

"Well, he and that . . . friend of his did help us get away from the city and told us who they really were and why they did what they did. So they can't be bad and if what they said is for real, then I will see to it that nobody, not even those bad government people, ever, ever takes you away. I will always keep you safe, I promise you that." She embraced Sherry again to assure her that things would be alright.

"So will I." Leon said. He and Claire were now hellbent on destroying Umbrella now that they knew mostly everything about the wretched company. It was going to be voraciously difficult and life-threatening, but they had to try no matter what. What happened to Raccoon City must not be allowed to repeat itself anywhere else.

The cop and biker looked on at where they last conversed with John, Thel and Cortana. They wondered if they would ever see them again. They knew that they had to find a way to get home to whatever year they said they came from and respected their wish. But still, they kinda wished they could stay here with them in the modern age and help them in dismantling the Umbrella company. They'd probably succeed greater should they choose to stay and help. Umbrella would stand very little chance against them together.

_Farewell, you guys and thanks for all you have done for us. We hope you find what you're looking for._ Claire and Leon thought together. Deep down, they hoped that the two would accept their offer on destroying Umbrella with them.

On their own now, Claire, Leon and Sherry all walked away from the train site, but with careful vigilance due to what they learned about the government being on their way here and they also wanted to get as far away from the city limits as possible due to the impending government-authorized strike that was to arrive in two days.

"So, how do you think we can take Umbrella down?" Claire asked Leon.

"Beats me. But we can do it." Leon said to her.

"But what if we can't? You heard what they said about Umbrella and what they'll do in the future. What if we don't succeed in destroying them before they can kill more innocent people with their evil virus work?" Claire worriedly asked.

"We _must_ succeed." was all Leon said back as he walked. Their shadows moved alongside the ground as they kept moving. Their fates were sealed. Taking down Umbrella was their newfound calling and they would accept it in time.

* * *

**Well, that's what I have for this chapter and it's also the end of the line for the RE2 part of the story and now it's on to the RE3 section. John-117, Thel 'Vadam and Cortana have already spilled the beans about who they were and what was going to take place eventually and now that they have done their jobs here, they are off on another harrowing mission in the city of the dead. **

**The way the Master Chief seriously injures the Tyrant with his grenades near the fight's end was borrowed from a scene in the 2008 "Turok" game, just to let you know.**

**Will Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield succeed in combating the outbreaks and the crooks responsible for starting them and re-writing Earth's future history? Will John, Cortana and Thel 'Vadam find the latter's lost brethren in time before the strike and finally escape the modern age and get back to the future where they belong? **

**OR . . . do you think they should consider the idea of staying in modern times to aid Claire and Leon in crushing Umbrella? Think about it.**

**I spared Wolfpack because I like them all and I couldn't bear to kill them off. After what Umbrella did to them both here and in the game, I figured it sounded fair to let them leave unharmed. They aren't the only ones who will go after Umbrella though if you know what I mean . . .**

**Sorry it took me long again to post another chapter. Shit happens (even I hate admitting that, but it's true).**

**I will be moving again in a day or two so don't expect anything new from me for a while (or should I say, a wchile. *Family Guy reference*). I'll write again once I'm fully settled.**

**Thanks and keep on reading.**


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